Laughing Torso

LAUGHING TORSO

CHAPTER IX PARIS REVISITED
TOWARDS the end of March I took the train to
Newhaven. I got into a third-class carriage with a
little dark man who looked like a foreigner. We
were the only people in the train and we did not
speak till we got to Lewes when he said, " Please, is
the next station Newhaven? " And I said that it
was. We talked quite a lot between Lewes and
Newhaven. I said, " I am going second-class on
the boat, but perhaps we will meet at Dieppe." He
met me and bought me coffee and cigarettes and we
got into the train. I asked him what he did. He
was an Italian engineer who had been in the British
Navy and said that he was on his way to Bombay.
We were both half-reclining on the seats, one oppo-
site the other. I said, " The women in Bombay
must be very beautiful, aren't they? " He sat
straight up on his seat and looking hard at me, said,
" I don't care about 'em good-looking," at which
speech I felt highly flattered. When we got to Paris
wre shook each other warmly by the hand and said
that we hoped wTe would meet again.
I took a taxi and drove to the hotel that I stayed
in when I arrived there in 1914. I looked out of the
window and saw the lights of the Rotonde. It
had not changed. I went to the Rotonde and
asked a strange-looking young man where Zadkine
and Wassilieff were. I heard that they were both in
Paris. I went to WassiliefPs studio and it was just
the same. Wassilieff asked how my figure looked
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