* * * * *
"I am sorry to have to say that this statement is a ------, and if
any of my readers have any doubt as to whether I used that strong
term without just reason, I invite them to communicate with the
Ministry of Shipping on the subject."--_Letter in "The Observer."_
We respect our contemporary's discretion, but we _should_ like to know
what was the "strong term".
* * * * *
"The Literary Class has grown beyond all expectations, the numbers
attending the last few meetings averaging nearly 100. Papers have
been read and discussed on Dickens' Works, _Tess, Tale of Two
Cities_."
_The Highway_.
Flushed with success, the Literary Class is expected next to tackle
HARDY; _Jude the Obscure_ and _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_ being the
first objectives.
* * * * *
_NOUVELLES DE PARIS._
_Paris, March 3rd, 1919._
DEAREST POPPY,--You know, don't you, that I write for the
Press? You _must_ write, _ma chère_, if you want to be _dans le
mouvement_ nowadays. It's getting to be almost as big a craze as
jazzing and is quite as exciting. It has its difficulties, of
course, but so has the jazz roll. And if you've got a title or
have been mixed up in a _cause célèbre_ you can write on anything
_sans aucune connaissance spéciale_. Camilla Blythely says she
just sends in her photo and signature and those obliging newspaper
people do the rest--which is most helpful to a busy person. But
then we can't all be as notorious as dear Camilla.
I hope it isn't getting just a little overdone. But I hear that
lots of papers are offering only three guineas a column now for
quite important signatures, while others actually insist on
contributors writing their own articles.
_Quant à moi_, I'm writing up the light side of the Peace
Conference. I do those snappy pars about LLOYD GEORGE'S ties and
CLEMENCEAU'S gloves and all those little domestic touches that
people would much rather read about than such remote things as
Czecho-Slovaks and Jugo-Slavs. I did a most _thrilling_ three
columns about the hats of the delegates, from the bowler of Mr.
BONAR LAW to the "coffieh" and "igal" headdress of EMIR FAISUL,
the Arab Prince. (It's always so effective if you can stick in a
word or two like that that nobody understands. You never need get
them right).
Talking of odd words, the latest _boutade_ over here is to find
new names and epithets for our dress materials--some of them quite
weird. If you want a silk _tricot_ you ask for "_djersador_,"
while a coarser texture is "_djersacier_"; "_mousseux_" now
describes velvet as well as champagne; _ninon_ is known as
"_vapoureuse"_; while to make one of the newest Spring dresses you
require only three-and-a-half yards of "_Salomé_." Some of the
_couturiers_ in the Rue de la Paix are issuing fashion-pronouncing
handbooks, while others have their own interpreters to assist
customers.
The theatres over here are getting extremely--well, what our
grandparents termed "_risqués_," but it really goes further than
that. And the worst of it is my countrypeople seem to think
it's the smart thing to go to them, which they do most
indiscriminately. _Heureusement_ they don't understand the stuff.
Whenever I see a most circumspect and highly proper British matron
entering one of the Boulevard theatres nowadays I think what
a mercy it is that we as a nation rely so much on pronouncing
phrase-books for acquiring foreign languages. It keeps one so
single-minded in the midst of a wicked world.
But, after all, propriety is a _question de localité_. Else why
do people do things here which would badly shock us at home? _Par
exemple_, dancing between the courses of a meal is our latest
_caprice_ here; but I was _un peu étonnée_, the other evening, to
see the Duchess of Mintford, at a restaurant of the most _chic_,
jazzing off the effects of the turbot with light-hearted
_abandon_.
Unfortunately a waiter carrying a tray darted across the track
at the very moment when she was involved in that step so
_embrouillant_, the side-roll.
It took quite a long time to collect, and put in their proper
order, the waiter, the contents of the tray, her Grace and all the
other jazzers who were coming up behind.
But, _après tout_, little comment was roused because most of the
onlookers thought the incident was just part of the dance.
So long, old thing.
_Bien à vous_,