September 19, 1932
from My Blue Notebooks, Liane de Pougy
She is adorable, childlike, yes - she gazes at you with ardour and amazement out of huge, wide-open eyes. She is not designed to cope with the practical side of life, but still she manages very well thanks to the talent which makes her independent, and her love of work. She is human in the best sense of the word, has been able to surround herself with a good deal of devotion and has the gift of making those who are dedicated and devoted to her perfectly happy. She publishes three novels a year, first in serial form, then as books. You think that she’s off giving lectures somewhere in central Europe and then you learn that she’s been having a great success in Barcelona. She sculpts, rides horses, loves first one woman, then another, then yet another. Luckily she was able to escape from her husband, and since that experience she has never thought of marrying again, nor of winning the heart of any other man.
I was given a very affectionate welcome by her after my husband had left me. She played the violin for me and read me beautiful passages from her poems to distract me from my grief. At that time she was often close to me - very close, within touching distance - gazing at me with meaningful looks, gentle and silent. She seemed to be waiting for me to make some move, to give way to some impetuous impulse. There is still something charming about the thought of that time.
Source: Liane de Pougy, My Blue Notebooks. Trans. Diana Athill. Tarcher/Putnam, 2002.