Laughing Torso

LAUGHING TORSO

the old gentlemen and old ladies who, I expect,
would have been horrified. I had been on the island
for five weeks and had to return to Paris. Tuohy
and Kinko motored me to Vannes, where we spent
the night at the hotel and I took the train from there
to Paris. On my way to Paris I saw one of the most
beautiful sights that I have ever seen. As the train
approached Chartres there was a large plain, with
corn that was just ready for cutting. It was about
seven-thirty and a most perfect evening. The sun
had nearly set and all the corn was a bright golden
colour. The sky was purple and suddenly, on the
horizon, I saw, first one and then the other spire of
the cathedral of Chartres rising slowly out of the
field of yellow corn. The spires of Chartres are both
different and one is taller than the other.
I felt very bored with Paris. I met a very nice
man called Dreydell, he is now also dead, as so
many people in this book are. He bought some
drawings of mine and took me to the Boeuf and to
Montmartre. I saw the Dowager Lady Michelham
at the Boeuf. She was with Ethel Levy and she in-
troduced me. I talked a great deal of rubbish but
they didn't seem to mind and gave me some cham-
pagne. I met with Lady Michelham several very
nice Americans, including Jeff Crane and his
cousins, the Pattersons, who came from Dayton,
Ohio. He had a friend called Jeff Dodge, who had
a beautiful apartment in the Boulevard St. Ger-
main. It had a garden, and instead of flowers in the
flower beds there was planted thick ivy. In the
middle was a fountain with a Cupid. We sat in the