I have opened a present, received in September, sent by a friend in Oregon; sensibly he used the services of Venetia Vyvyan, across the river, not the pond, in Barnes but I wanted to save it for Christmas.
I was certain Chips and Cowles must have met. Virginia Cowles, American War Correspondent, is discreet about her personal life in her memoir, Looking for Trouble. You will not be surprised that Chips, as usual, is not the soul of discretion; Virginia garners fourteen entries in the index.
”Monday 7th November 1938, Kelvedon
Lord Camrose’s long illness explains the recent opposition of the Telegraph to peace, Chamberlain and the govt. Perhaps his recovery will bring about a change of policy. Seymour, snobbish and capitalistic, is very Red, or rather, pro-Winston. More he had been influenced by Virginia Cowles, that female journalist whom I suspect of being a communist agent. She seduces the youth of England: sleeps with them and infects them with Eden-itis. She ought to be deported.
Monday 1st July 1940
And also I hear that Basil Dufferin has asked Maureen to divorce him so that he can marry Virginia Cowles, the journalist. She is a blowsy girl who has had a long sequence of lovers – Seymour Berry for intermittent periods, and others. She is socially ambitious as I immediately spotted when we first met.
Friday 27th June 1941
Basil suffering from DTs, is in debt and hopelessly dissipated and is in love with Mrs Virginia Cowles.
Wednesday 16th July 1941
George Gage, now a sournois major and quite unchanged physically since the last war, Leslie Hore-Belisha, Loelia Westminster, Ann O’Neill and Virginia Cowles came in for a drink before I took them to Noël Coward’s ghost-play, Blithe Spirit. … We dined at Quaglino’s and I felt dull and gêné with Loelia for the first time; however I quite liked Virginia Cowles and even found her attractive. We had a long talk and she confided in me that she had no intention of marrying Basil Dufferin as he is too dissipated.”
Virginia has become part of Chips’S circle.
“Tuesday 23rd June 1942
Coming out of the Dorchester, I met Virginia Cowles who was effusively cordial and I saw at once that now we were allies.
Thursday 8th March 1943
I was next to Virginia Cowles who was friendly. She is just back from Algiers where she saw Seymour Berry whom she still loves.”
Other entries record her attendance at parties and how she enchanted Lord Wavell. Chips certainly changed his tune after her war reportage proved prophetic and her social ambitions successful. In the latter she was a Chip off the old block.