Merton House
Teddington
Middlesex
England

15 10 1932

Dear Mr Troy,

Thank you very much for your letter of
Sept. 26th., dealing with your thought of founding a
play on The Small Lady. I am sorry to say that
ever since I wrote it I have been playing with exactly
the same idea myself. And am encouraged to it
by Mr A.E.Coppard's similar feeling to yours
which he communicated to me immediately he read the
yarn. I feel quite in agreement with you
in that the story was quite wide and exciting enough
for another treatment. I visualised the whole
thing as a dramatic situation from the beginning
- a central romantic-tragic movement from a César
Franck symphony. I was too impatient at the time to
consider preliminary movements, however. No
alegrettos I must get at the sweep of the adagio
at once. But ever since I have been as busy as can be.
A novel must get done on time. Another book of
two or three long stories. The usual journalism.
And I teach daily.

I must thank you very much
for your interest and good wishes. I did not
unhappily see your review in the Nation. America
seems to have overlooked my book, I regret to say.
A month ago only a few hundred copies had been sold
in your immense country! I am not troubled.
I do feel it was a good book and I hope to write
well again.

Thank you many times and
best wishes for your own work. Give my love to
New York. I never get a letter from there with a
street name on it without a sick, homesick,
feeling in the pit of my tummy,