And the one-piece bathing suit, so the woman said, was an unconscious modern effort to get back to the Greek spirit. She had a husband with her. He does lecture or anything, you know. But she isn't so very Greek-looking herself, al- though her spirit is so Greek, so she has this Greek- looking husband to wear the sandals and the tunics and the togas and things. She calls him Achilles. It's quite proper, you know -- Achilles stays be- hind a screen until she wants to illustrate a point, and then he comes out with a lyre or a lute or something, and just stands there and LOOKS Greek. And then he goes back behind the screen and changes into the next garment she needs. Of course, there are lots of men couldn't stand it as well as Achilles. But when you come to that, there are lots of men who don't look so very well in bathing suits, either. And, of course, our American men don't have the temperament to carry off a thing like that. Of course, if we all turned Greek it would be quite a shock at first to see everybody come into a dining-room or a drawing-room looking like Achilles does. Not that temperament makes so much difference as it did a few years ago, you know -- temperament and personality are going out and individuality is coming in. Have you thought much about automatic writing? It's being taken up again, you know. Not the vulgar, old-fashioned kind of spiritualism -- that was so ordinary, wasn't it? The new ghosts are different. More -- more -- well, more REFINED, somehow, you know. Like the new dances as compared with that horrid turkey trot. One should always ask one's self: "Does this have a refining influence on me; and through me on the world?" For, after all, there is a duty one owes to society in general. Have you seen the new sunshades? AREN'T THE RUSSIANS WONDERFUL? Aren't the Russians marvelous people! We're been taking up Diaghileff in a serious way -- our little group, you know -- and really, he's wonderful! Who else but Diaghileff could give those lovely Russians things the proper accent? And accent -- if you know what I mean -- accent is everything! Accent! Accent! What would art be without accent? Accent is coming in -- if you get what I mean -- and what they call "punch" is going out. I always thought it was a frightfully vulgar sort of thing, anyhow -- punch! The thing I love about the Russians is their Orientalism. You know there's an old saying that if you find a Russian you catch a Tartar . . . or something like that. I'm sure that is wrong. . . . I get so MIXED on quotations. But I always know where I can find them, if you know what I mean. But the Russian verve isn't Oriental, is it? Don't you just dote on verve? That's what makes Bakst so fascinating, don't you think? -- his verve Though they do say that the Russian operas don't analyze as well as the German or Italian ones -- if you get what I mean. Though for that matter, who analyzes them?