Full text of "Laughing Torso"

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SOUTHERN    FRANCE    AGAIN
Luxembourg and came out to a neighbouring cafe
to have a drink on the terrasse and to buy some
cigarettes.   The Countess said, " Wait for me, I will
go into the  € tabac *  and get a paper and some
cigarettes."    I waited and she stayed there rather
a long time and came out laughing and said, " I
have found two of your friends inside."    I could
not imagine who they could be.   She would not tell
me, but said that they were both men and that they
had arranged for us all to dine together at a restaur-
ant opposite the Roman Arena and then go to a
travelling circus that they had found just outside
the town.   At seven o'clock we hired a horse-drawn
vehicle that the Americans in Paris call a " sea-
going hack"  and  drove  to the restaurant.    We
went upstairs and there were F. and R.   We were
delighted to meet each other, and as we had a great
deal to talk about, it was a most entertaining dinner-
party.   F. and R. had just come from a place near
Bordeaux,   where   Cocteau,   Radiguet,   and   Max
Jacob had stayed.    The Countess had hired the
carriage for the evening and after dinner we all
got in and drove to a circus.   Afterwards we went
back to our hotel as F. and R. were staying there
too.    They had brought several bottles of wine,
called Vin de Carthagene.    They had bought it be-
cause they liked its name and also the shape of the
bottles,  which  had  spouts.     The  wine was very
sweet and sickly.    They also had a bottle of FEau
de VArquebuse, which they had bought for the same
reason.    This was really terrible, and, as all the
occupants of the hotel had gone to bed, we had to
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