• Enter Bertrand Russell
Enter Bertrand Russell Early one morning in October 1894, the front door of 44 Grosvenor Road opened and closed stealthily. In the parlor the front window curtains rustled as Hannah, now 62, and Alys, 27, peered furtively out of the window. Robert, who was almost 67 years old, had arrayed himself in his most fashionable clothes. He wore a dark velvet jacket, elegant striped trousers, spats over his shoes. A broad-brimmed hat of straw was perched jauntily on his bald pate. He carried a bouquet of autumn flowers. As the two women watched,
Robert walked briskly down the street.
Robert was on his way to see a lady friend. When asked about the relationship, Robert blandly shrugged it off, calling her his "polished female friend."
"How intolerable it is!" Hannah said angrily to Alys.
"Night and day he complains of his aches and pains. Yet look how frisky he is now."
"It's ridiculous," responded Alys. "Imagine having a mistress at his age." She placed a firm hand on Hannah's arm. "Mother, thee must leave it. There's nothing we can do but ignore it."
Hannah looked up at her younger daughter with tears in her eyes. "Oh, Alys, thee is such a comfort to me. Never
HANNAH WH1TALL SMITH
did a mother have a dearer, more comfortable daughter than I have in thee."
Alys was a help to her mother in numerous ways: She was expert at handling the capricious Frank; her tact and diplomacy won a place for her in his heart that had hardened against the rest of her family. She was patient with her father, no matter what her inner feelings were, and played word games (the forerunner of Scrabble) with him by the hour. Efficient and competent, she ran the household, relieving the aging Hannah of many of her domestic burdens. Soon, however, Alys's life was to be permanently and irrevocably changed.
Back in 1889, the first year that the Smiths had leased Friday's Hill, one of their prestigious local callers was the dowager Lady Russell, widow of Lord John Russell, who had been prime minister earlier in the century. Lady Russell had been staying with her son Rollo, whose household was located near Friday's Hill. Upon first acquaintance Hannah referred to the elderly woman as a "delightful old lady." She was later to revise her opinion.
In that same summer of 1889, the grandson of Lady Russell came with his Uncle Rollo to call on the newcomers at Friday's Hill. Bertrand Russell, then 17 years of age, was enchanted with Alys Pearsall Smith. Still a shy schoolboy, his eyes glowed with admiration for the 22-year-old college student from America. He found Alys not only beautiful but also more emancipated than any English young ladies of his acquaintance. Some time after that, Bertie (as he was known to the family) documented his thoughts on his first encounter with Alys: She was kind and made me feel not shy.
I fell in love with her at first sight. I did not see any of the family again that summer, but in my subsequent years during the three months that I spent annually with my Uncle Rollo,
I used to walk the four miles to their house every Sunday, arriving to lunch and staying to supper.
Alys had continued to be friendly and made the stiff, reserved boy feel at ease. Nevertheless, it wasn't until 1893,