Laughing Torso

LAUGHING TORSO

wept in one corner and the violinist in the other, and
the ladies of the house were so filled with emotion
that they paid for the champagne. The next day
at the Dome I met Eric Satie and told him the
story. I spoke to him in French and finally ex-
plained, " Et a la fin Us ' grues '• out pay& pour le
champagne" He drew himself up and said, " Made-
moiselle nous tiavons pas de ' grues * en France" and I
said, " How funny, we have lots in England/*
However, I managed to pacify him and we had a
drink together. That evening I saw Russell Green
at the Dome. I said, " Hullo, how did you get to
the Dome?" He said, " Is this the Dome? I
thought it was the Rotonde." I said that I was glad
that he had made a mistake as otherwise I should
not have found him* He had never been to Paris
before and said that he strongly suspected that the
whole place was a fraud and that there was nothing
really interesting to be seen. I said, " Have you any
money? " He had a little and I said that I would
show him the town as I knew it. He had taken a
first in French at Oxford and spoke the most
beautiful French. We started for the Bol de Cidre,
off the Place St. Michel. Here Russell's French was
not very well understood and so I did the talking
in my bad French. We then went to some Bal
Musettes and then to some low haunts in Mont-
martre. He was delighted. We started out again
the next day, where I met him at the Dome, and after
ten days he went back to London a changed man.
One day I met P. G. Konody at the Dingo, a
small cafe in the Rue Delambre. He speaks every