Christabel LaMotte and Blanche Glover's friendship

Christabel LaMotte and Blanche Glover's friendship was one of the two relationships Christabel later said she had trusted and loved deeply. Blanche’s death left a lasting wound: years afterward, Christabel still regretted that their bond had ended in hatred and continued to carry grief over what had happened.

Friendship and Trust

Looking back in a letter to Randolph Ash, Christabel named Blanche as one of the very few friends she had trusted. She distinguished the friendship from her love for Ash, but described both bonds as profound attachments whose consequences remained with her. The letter makes clear that Blanche was not merely a companion from an earlier chapter of Christabel’s life: her loss remained part of Christabel’s account of herself in old age.

Blanche’s Death and Christabel’s Guilt

At a séance, Christabel accused Ash of having made her a murderess. In her later explanation, she clarified that she had been speaking of Blanche and the terrible end that continued to torment her, rather than accusing Ash over the existence or concealment of her child. Her words had been shaped by anguish and sickness, and she acknowledged that Ash had understood them differently. The accusation thus preserves both the depth of her distress and the painful distance between the friends’ loss and the interpretation Ash placed on her words.

Memory and Retrospective Meaning

Christabel’s account returns to the friendship through regret rather than a full reconstruction of its final events. She says Blanche died hating both her and Ash, and names Blanche alongside Ash as one of the two friends she had trusted. Writing under cover to Ash’s wife, Christabel asks forgiveness and reflects that, in old age, she regrets their trusting exchange of poetry and ideas more than the days of passion. The letter’s retrospective form gives the friendship an unresolved quality: it is remembered as precious, yet inseparable from loss, guilt, and words that could not be taken back.