2110-6-9-12

British Embassy, Washington. Dec. 4th 1934. Tuesday.

My darlings,

I have just today got a delightful letter from Alice (since I wrote my Sunday letter) but we have had no other communication from home.

[ST: We were staying at Columbia University.]

Yesterday John and I went out and bought presents in the morning. We had very little time as it takes such hours getting anywhere. We are living at the distance of say Hampstead and it takes us a good half hour to get to the shops. We lunched with the President and Mrs. Butler. He is a very shrewd and clever man, who has known every important person in America and Europe for the last 40 years, and has a colossal appetite for the most avid details of politics. Mrs. Butler is a R.C. and comes of French stock. She is nice and rather severe and desperately interested in politics - a little like Elsie Reford [ST: Canadian friend] type of person.

We dined out with Bella da Costa Green, a very different sort of woman. She is ugly but most amusing looking, magnificently dressed and riotiously funny. She was old Mr. T.P. Morgan's secretary and is now secretary of the Morgan library. We dined with her at the Rumba restaurant in the enormous/

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enormous building built by Rockerfeller.

It is the most amazing place - you go up by an express lift 65 floors to a restaurant. You look down at the loveliest sight you can imagine - New York at night. It looks as if all the diamond necklaces in the world had been laid on black velvet in long lines, with an occasional ruby to give variety.

We dined in the restaurant mostly in total darkness varied with coloured lights and deafened by noise. Lucienne Boyer sang and there was some exhibition dancing. The rest of the party were amusing, the Howsons, he is librarian in Columbia University, and Mr. Kent the head of the Metropolitan Museum, nice ironic people, good companions for such an evening. We went down and saw the amazing theatre which holds 6,000 people and the "lounges" for men and women decorated by American Rex Whistlers. Women can get rouge, lipsticks and powder for paying 10 cents! Billy would be interested by the marvellous concealed lighting and the clever use of chromium and glass.

John was given a degree at the University - a very nice ceremony. Then Valentine Williams (the shocker writer) took/

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took us to tea with the Kemit Roosevelts who have a house - a most unusual thing to have; looking over the river and hung with tapestries. In the evening we went to the Pilgrims dinner. Mrs. Murray Butler and I went to a box. Mrs. John Finlay was there. She wildly admires Anna's books and says she is always buying them and is always "out" of them and thinks it outrageous that Anna shouldn't have a better publisher in New York. John spoke brilliantly and was very amusing, and held the audience of 400 men completely quiet and spellbound.

I wrote most of this in the train going to Washington. We passed through the suburbs of New York nothing but queer looking wooden houses with very shaggy bits of landscape between them.

How you would love the captions in some of the newspapers. An elephant had run very mildly amok and the headline was

"Cautious pachyderm flattens fence!"

I was handed a luncheon menu and asked if I would like "a small live baby lobster"?

We reached the Embassy here about 4.30. It is very beautiful and stands a long way back form the street with the chancery which looks like a small Georgian village between it/

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it and anything; so there is no noise at all. Lady Lindsay is away ill and we had tea alone with Sir Ronald who is very good looking with iron grey hair and a very nice quiet way with him.

We have got a lovely suite of rooms, two bathrooms and a sitting room.

I don't suppose I shall write again till the boat!

I long to hear from you all.

Your own lovingest "Susie"

This house though heated in exactly the same way as an American house smells and feels just like an English one!