“PAT DARLING,
“I am happy or I am resigned or I am content. I have gained
seven pounds. Sam is the most thoughtful man I ever knew. Paris
is hot but exciting. Shortly I shall become one of those women,
who, over multiple chins, emit ‘my husband, my husband, my
husband,’ in doting accents, at five-minute intervals, as
punctuation to all conversation.
“I plan to find you a banker, and convince you that the
substance is more satisfactory than the shadow. (Bankers’
shadows, even, are substantial.) Meanwhile I have found you a
heavenly gold-and-silver negligee. It will make you regret that
you have gone in for celibacy. Or have you? Did the beautiful
red-haired Noel really depart within a few hours of his first
appearance? How are you and Helena getting on?
“Though the road may be long, we arrive at respectability in the
end, my child. I now own a sable wrap.
“Love . . .”
August—The apartment downstairs was redolent of Helena’s paints and
oils, instead of Lucia’s bath salts and perfume. In the evening, when I
came home, I watched Helena decorating amazingly realistic masks,
instead of watching Lucia decorate her own lovely face.