Item 74 - Letter from Sybil Meredith to James Smith

Richmond Lodge, Richmond Avenue, Milltown, Dublin.—His sweet letter almost made up for the fact that he is not coming. Offers herself as his ‘Irish Pen Pal’, as Carew is too busy to write. Discusses the work they have done in the house and garden. Łukasiewicz she thinks ‘a very nice man’. His much-younger wife [Regina] was in the bombing of Poland and Germany and lost most of her friends and relations in the war, while her favourite nephew recently died from the effects of being in a concentration camp. She is therefore in a bad mental state and her only relief seems to be to drink whisky at the Shelburne Hotel, where Sybil has occasionally accom-panied her. If Smith decides to settle in Switzerland, the climate will be good for his asthma. Carew says mathematical logic ‘shows the same fishiness’ as mathematics, and says that he has heard of Bochensky [Joseph Bocheński], who was a pupil of Łukasiewicz. Aubrey is coming, but without his ‘young woman’ [Josephine Tweedy], as a room could not be found for her. Aubrey wants Sybil to take her to Cornwall this year, and they [Aubrey and Josephine] are going to Italy in the autumn. The young woman is very young, beautiful, and amusing. She has been acting for some time, but has recently been left some money and is thinking of becoming a doctor. She (Sybil Meredith) will be coming over alone in September, as Carew has neither the money nor the time. Hopes to see him then.