Von Arnim was a first cousin of Mansfield's father, Harold Beauchamp, making the two women first cousins, once removed. Although Elizabeth was older by 22 years, she and Mansfield later corresponded, reviewed each others works and became close. Mansfield, ill with tuberculosis, lived in the Montana region of Switzerland (now Crans-Montana) from May 1921 until January 1922, renting the Chalet des Sapins with her husband John Middleton Murry from June 1921. The house was only a "1/2 an hour's scramble away" from von Arnim's Chalet Soleil at Randogne. Von Arnim visited her cousin often during this period. They got on well, although Mansfield considered the much wealthier von Arnim to be patronising. Mansfield satirised von Arnim as the character Rosemary in a short story, "A Cup of Tea", which she wrote while in Switzerland.