Everything is so amusing! and we have had a delightful evening. It is more
like Paris than England, because one wears a hat at dinner, which I always
think looks so much better in a restaurant. The party was about eighteen,
and I sat next the host. American men; as far as I have yet seen, are of
quite another sex to English or French--I mean you feel more as if you were
out with kind Aunts or Grandmothers or benevolent Uncles than just men.
They don't try to make the least love to you or say things with two
meanings, and they are perfectly brotherly and serious, unless they are
telling anecdotes with American humour--and that is not subtle. It is
something that makes you laugh the moment you hear it, you have not to
think a scrap. When they are not practically English, like the ones we see
in London every season, they wear such funny clothes--often velvet collars
on their coats! and the shoulders padded out so that every man is perfectly
square; but everything looks extraordinarily well sewn and ironed and
everybody is clean shaven; and Octavia says it takes at least two hundred
years of gently bred ancestors to look like a gentleman clean shaven in
evening dress, so perhaps that is why lots of them have the appearance of
actors. Tom, with his ugly face and his long lean limbs, seemed as some
other species of animal, or a Derby winner let loose among a pen of prize
hackneys and cobs. Many of them are splendid of their kind, but it is
perfectly absurd to pretend they look thoroughbred. One would not expect it
of animals, with their mixed ancestry, so why of human beings.
Octavia says they would be insulted to hear me saying that, but I am sure
they are far too sensible and logical; for if you were a mixture of cart
horse, hunter, thoroughbred, Shetland and cob, you might have the good
qualities of all and be a magnificent splendid creature, but you could not
expect to look like one of the direct descendants of the Godolphin Arabian,
could you, Mamma?
I don't mind that part in the least, but I would rather they had a more
outdoor expression. As I looked round the room numbers of their faces
seemed pasty, and their shapes thick through, and soft, as if they would
bruise easily if one touched them, and lived a good deal in the dark. Also
they don't have "flowers and honey" on their hair, so it does not shine and
keep tidy, and it is not brushed smartly; and after our lovely guardsmen
they look a little ungroomed about the head. This, of course, is only my
first impression, after seeing the fashionable restaurant one evening. I
may be quite wrong, generally speaking.
The women are so exquisitely dressed that it is difficult to form an
opinion. They have whatever is the latest fashion, perfectly made; all
their hair is done exactly alike in the way it is worn in Paris. Their
figures have the last "look" and their jewels are simply divine. With all
this beyond criticism, it is very difficult to say whether they are
beautiful or not, naturally; the general effect is so perfect. They, as far
as grooming and superlative "turnedoutness" is concerned (I had to make a
new word), are the counterpart of our guardsmen.
The food was exquisite and we had terrapin and canvas back ducks; and they
are both the best things you ever tasted, only when you cut the duck you
have to look the other way, and take the first bite with your eyes shut,
because it has only run through the kitchen. And one would prefer to have
the terrapin alone in one's room, because of the bones--a greater test in
nice eating than the bunch of grapes which were given to the young diplomat
in the story book.
But to begin with, I have not told you of the cocktail! I had to have one.
You are handed it before anything else, while you are waiting for the soup,
and it tastes like ipecacuanha wine mixed with brandy and something bitter
and a touch of orange; but you have not swallowed it five minutes when you
feel you have not a care in the world and nothing matters. You can't think,
Mamma, how insidious and delightful--but of course I could not possibly
have drunk anything after it, and I was so surprised to see everyone else
swallowing champagne all through dinner; so I suppose it is a thing one
gets accustomed to.
Now I am very sleepy, so good-night, dear Mamma.
Kisses to my angels.
Your affectionate daughter,
ELIZABETH.