BACK TO PARIS AND CELEBRITIES
felt myself turning pale with fright. However, after
a glass or two of wine I regained my courage and
did not eat my meat with a fish fork. Hugo Rumbold
was there and he played some of his songs, including
the Madame Tussaud song about the Chamber of
Horrors. I sang some of my silly songs. I wandered
through the rooms of the apartment and found a
large life-size painting of Nijinsky; this was by
Jacques Emile Blanche. I thought it very fine in-
deed and the best thing of his that I have ever seen,
I arrived home about two-thirty, feeling very much
pleased with life and with myself.
My friend, Marie Beerbohm, spoke to me often
about two friends of hers, F. and R. F. was half
French, his Mother being English, and R. was
an American from Boston. One day at the Boeuf
she introduced me to them. F. was one of the
first people, with Fauconnet, the French painter
who died, and who was a very fine artist, to discover
the Douanier Rousseau. They had seen his pic-
tures at the Salon des Independants and had written
him a letter beginning " Cher Maitre" and had
bought a picture. F. was a great friend of Cocteau,
Radiguet, Max Jacob and, in fact, had known
everyone of interest in France for the past twenty-
years. They were both most amusing and intelli-
gent and we had a wonderful evening. Marie
Beerbohm was as witty as all the rest of her family
and we all laughed so much that we went home
quite exhausted. Marie lived in a service fiat
near the Avenue Wagram. She had a room
and a bath. This part of Paris and the Bois de
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