26 May 1922

Victoria Palace Hotel, Paris

I never realised what drapery was until today. I had a good stare at the Venus de Milo with all the other starers. And she is lovely as ever - the balance is most marvellous. Its intensely fascinating to see the development of that perfection - to trace it from heads that are flat as flatirons with just one dab for a nose - then to the period of tree worship when all the bodies are very round and solid like the trunks of trees, then through the Egyptian influence when they begin to have stiff and terrible wings, and at last that perfect flowering flower. It makes one in love with the human body to wander about there - all the lovely creases in the belly and the roundness of knees and the beauty of thighs. The Louvre is a superb place; one could spend months there.
   We hope to leave here next Friday evening. Next week will be a rush. We have so many engagements, lunches, dinners and I must go to that dentist every day. I feel we are only just leaving Paris in time; one would be swept away. And these little social affairs take up such an amount of the day - preparing for them, seeing to ones gloves & brushing ones coat and skirt and so on and cleaning shoes. It takes me hours to get ready. But I shall speed up later. Already we are putting off engagements until the autumn . . . I sound rather smug and as tho I liked it all, don't I? No, its not that. As one is here its the only thing to do. Serious work is out of the question in a city. One simply cant feel free enough. So one accepts distractions; thats all.  [To Ida Baker, 27 May 1922.]