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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2024
Introduction
It is uncertain who the ‘Marius’ in this letter refers to, but she was clearly a schoolfriend still in Wellington, and may possibly refer to a girl called Marion Tweed, who had been a fellow pupil of KM’s at Miss Swainson’s school. KM had soon established herself as the class rebel, to the consternation of the headmistress, Mrs Henry Smith, who ruled the school with a rod of iron and expected absolute obedience and discipline. She certainly met her match in KM, who became the leader of a group of girls who formed a secret club with literary aspirations, and who started a little magazine called The School:
Kathleen was the leader of a group that met upstairs, under the eaves (rather influenced by Little Women perhaps) and keeping the ‘literary club’ and its activities secret. The School was composed of jokes collected from grownup papers and ‘original’ stories. Kathleen’s was a story [called ‘In-Flu-Enza’] about a dog: ‘The door opened and in-flu-Enza’. The first issue (for club members only) was copied in Kathleen’s irregular, rather distinctive hand, on large double sheets of foolscap.
The club was called the A. R. Club (the ante-room), and a school rhyme of the time begins: ‘A. for A. R. Club confined to the fair’. There was certainly a cachet attached to the girls who belonged, amongst whom were KM, Maata Mahupuku and Marion Tweed.
[16 April 1903] [N]
27 St. Stephen’s Sq.
Bayswater. W.
April 16th 1903
My dearest Marius.
What a long time since I have had a talk to you? It seems years &years. Do you feel the same about it? I wish that I could give you an idea of London. It is totally beyond description. It is most marvellous!!! The traffic is so astounding. There is none other way to have a really splendid view, than to sit on the top of a bus, with a piece of strong elastic on your hat; Then it is superb!! The bus drivers are such cures. They look most beautifully comfy wrapped up in gloves and rugs, and are most talkative.
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