Laughing Torso

LAUGHING TORSO

room behind the Pantheon. It was in the next
street to a street filled with Bal Musettes and in a
very low quarter. This I thought very chic and also
very economical. I went to his place and painted
his portrait. He sat every morning at a table with
his hand on a book and a pipe beside him. I liked
him very much but found him rather boring after a
time. I went out with him and danced. He danced
beautifully and was nice and tall. He made great
friends with Cocteau, who adored Englishmen.
The English are still very highly considered by the
French. Principally, I think, because of what
Baudelaire said about their clothes. I saw Radiguet
often with Cocteau. He was a most charming boy
and spoke the most beautiful French that I have ever
heard spoken. He also spoke very slowly and dis-
tinctly. He had white, regular teeth and greenish-
grey eyes, which were of a very fine shape. His
father was a very good draughtsman and worked
for a French paper. The best draughtsmen in
France, and there are many good ones, are very
badly paid and he was very poor. He had three
other children and Raymond was the eldest.
Gocteau had met him and thought that he was very
talented and Radiguet had become a protege of his,
I think, at the time I met him, he was nineteen or
twenty. I met also, about this time, for my memory
is not quite exact about dates. Georges Duthuit,
who afterwards married the daughter of Henri
Matisse. Georges was very tall and very good-
looking and had lived at Oxford. He spoke extremely
good English and had large blue eyes.