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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/