May 11, 1919 to Mother.

Had a call Thursday from Isadora Duncan but about the very business matter of her school[1] which we have at this moment under requisition and are using it as a part of the Educational Dept., A.E.F. Now that the war is over she wants to get it back and commence her dancing school again. I had had several conversations with her lawyer about it. Finally she decided she’d come around herself and went to all the agony of getting a Major who is with the Peace Commission to come to see me and make an appointment for her with me—as if I was that hard to see. She was much dolled up but looks her age. Was amused at her comments on the lack of appreciation of art in America and the tale she spun to me about how badly she had been treated. Don’t know what effect she thought she’d have but she seemed rather peeved when I told her that the army would be through with her place in June and we could return it to her then but that I had no power to do so before its present use was finished. Had an interesting side light on it Saturday night when dancing with an English girl whom I had seen at another dance on Wednesday. She spoke of having met Isadora on Thursday and how peeved she was at Americans in general and in particular with and American Captain who was very hard and unsympathetic, who appeared to have never heard of her and who refused to give her her school. My English friend had met her the same day as my interview with her and was greatly amused when she found that I was the Captain in question. She said if she had known that the Captain she had danced with the night before was the same one Isadora was swearing at, she would have poked her up and got more information as to her bad opinion of me.

Speaking of interesting people of a different kind, was out at the St. Cloud Club for golf late one afternoon this week and had quite a good look at Lloyd George[2] who was playing there at the same time. Saw him on the course and then later in the club house. He surely looks young for his position and responsibility and as if he had many years of activity yet to come.

Have been today down to Fontainebleau and went through the palace there this afternoon, seeing the suites of Napoleon, Marie Antoinette and the other royal personages who lived there at one time and another. …. It was the favorite spring and summer palace of the kings of France and can well see why after seeing it for now in May it is wonderfully beautiful. The rooms and furniture in the Palace are beautiful but think Napoleon would have appreciated a modern bathtub instead of the ancient zinc proposition he had.

With reference to sending money to Frank, made an allotment of $30 a month to him to be effective June 1^st but don’t know if notification will reach Washington in time for the first of next month or not. Had the intention of allotting $50 a month and beginning earlier but the cost of living has gone up by such leaps and bounds since the armistice that my pay as a captain now goes very little further than that of a 2^nd. Lt. last summer. Just at the time I got my captaincy had to buy a new uniform and overcoat and that got my surplus pay for two months. And so it goes—any shoes fit to wear are $20 a pair and everything else is in proportion. Compared to most of the officers here I live a very quiet and inexpensive sort of life but the pay of a Captain, on half of which I could have lived well in Spartanburg, leaves me pinched here all the time. However, [Frank] will begin to receive the $30 a month certainly by July 1^st and wish I could have begun before.

Am going tonight to a Mothers Day reception given by the Association of French Homes for American Officers and shall be thinking of you there. This is not as good a letter as I should have liked to write you on Mothers Day but it’s my Mothers Day letter to you.

[1] Duncan (1877-1927) owned two apartments at 5, rue Danton in the heart of the Latin Quarter; she lived in one and used the other as her school. It’s not clear whether the AEF rented one or both.

[2] David Lloyd George (1863-1945) was Prime Minister of England, representing his country at the Paris Peace Conference at Versailles.