Dick and I spent most of the day out at Yonkers with our cousin,
Travers Jerome, Jr., and his wife, Joy, who is very good looking. The
boy child is of the type that mine and Shane Leslie’s are, so I suppose
it’s the Jerome blood! My American family seem to be very nice. Mama
often wanted to talk about them, but we never would let her!
I dined with Maxine Elliot, and had on one side of me Mr. George
Creel, and on the other Mr. Swope. The latter is the editor of THE
WORLD, but I did not know it at first or I might not have said
some of the things I did. There is a type of American! What force,
what energy (“dynamic,” I said of him to someone. “No--cyclonic!” they
corrected)! I asked him, when I was able to get a word in edgeways, how
he manages to revitalize, he seemed to me to expend so much energy. He
said he got it back from me, from everyone, that what he gives out he
gets back, it is a sort of circle. He was so vibrant that I found my
heart thumping with excitement as though I had drunk champagne, which I
hadn’t! He talks a lot but talks well, is never dull....
In England one hesitates to accept to dine out unless one is very sure
who is going to be there. Here one can go at random, it may be strange,
it may be incomprehensible, but never is it dull! I wonder if it is
simply the novelty of the first weeks in America, or is it the interest
of continually exploring new people--?