|
Correspondence from Gerald Yorke to Aleister Crowley
49. Oxford Mansion. London. W. 1.
20/2/31
C∴[are] F∴[rater]
I gave Marie [Maria de Miramar] dinner the other night and found her in a very bad way. Rent is paid up to the end of the month, but she is very short of food, and in a bad nervous condition, talking to everyone of suicide. Her genuine attempts to find work have met with very little success. She got one regular job, but lost it through being your wife when John Bull attacked you and the Mandrake [Mandrake Press] early in January. She cannot return status quo ante until she has got her divorce.
On paper you seem to be willing to help her. But in practice you spend the whole of what you have on yourself. On Oct 25 you ask me to wire Dennes to send her money. I do not acknowledge the letter—not having received it—and your monthly cheque arrives intact.
Obviously Marie has been paid nothing. You asked me to send her the trust money, yet when you receive it yourself, you spend the whole of it yourself and send her nothing.
On Feb 3rd you write to me "I sent her cash via Israel Regardie as I could, 50-50 of anything I got". Apart from the money which I refused to send you, and which was exhausted I think in October, she declares she had not received a penny.
The same week I receive your letter of Oct 25, and at once write to ask Dennes to pay the £5 a month direct to Marie if it is within the powers of the settlement and subject to your approval.
On Feb 9th you write "thanks very much for doing what I asked re the settlement".
Then on Feb 14 you write "my suggestion was that Marie should receive temporary help while getting a job and pendente lite".
Clearly from your letters it has been your intention ever since Oct 25 to send her something. Yet in practice she has received nothing. I find that the trustees cannot pay her direct; the money has to go to you first.
She refrained from taking any action until January, by which time it was apparent to her that in spite of your stated willingness to help in practice you were going to allow her to starve without taking any steps at all about it. She then went to the magistrate to ask his advice.
Do face the position and come out into the open. Either write to her that you do not intend to let her have a penny, or else state what allowance you are prepared to make her 'pendente lite'. £4 a month at least ensures her lodgings.
At the moment I tell her that from your letters to me you appear to want to treat her decently and to make her some allowance—you know she is not extravagant. But in practice she receives nothing, and one cannot blame her for suspecting you of prevarication. That is why she does not write. "What is the use, if he was a man of honour he would have sent me something, instead of writing that he means to."
As I have written, your share of the trust fund has to go to you direct. As far back as Oct 25 you ask for some or all to be diverted to Marie. You knew that money had not been diverted to Marie, and when you received it instead of sending her some you spent it all on yourself.
Please do not forget that if you persist in giving her nothing at all, you run a grave risk eventually of going to prison for it.
Do have the decency to "come clean" and put the wretched woman out of her suspense either by writing and telling her to go to hell, or else by sending money. To write and say you want to and then to send nothing—which is what you have done since Oct 25 is distinctly mean—to put it mildly.
I will try and come over for the second week-end in March. At the moment I cannot afford the journey.
Fraternally,
V.I.
|