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Yesterday I had my first sitting with Leon
Bakst3. He pronounces his named just like the past tense of the Eng
English verb "to box"; that is just as if it were spelled Boxed, Boxed. But if you
prefer to give the one and only vowel in his named
name a middle-West sound, why then you can pronounce his name so that it rhymes with
WAXED, as in "the floor was waxed". You must instruct father4 and mother5 and the
two Virginias6 how to call his
name, as it will be much mixed up with mine for awhile.
His studio has three enormous rooms, and they are full of beautiful things7 from all over Europe8 and Asia9. To sit there for two hours in the afternoon is like going to
church—a church where all the religions of mankind come together in one great
religion. He is just one of the simple people I have always loved—like Annie Sadelik10 and Joe
Pavelik Sr.11 and all the friends of my child childhood. He is reading "One of
Ours"12 with the help of a dictionary, but he speaks little English. Please return See! A horse named Red Cloud has been
winning some races in Paris2!⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ He speaks to me in French and I reply
in English. He began by telling me Russian fairy tales, and is going to tell me
stories every sitting, he says. He is doing only my head and shoulders13, and thank Heaven did not want me to
"dress up". He selected a green georgette waist I happened to have, with a little
gold in it, loose and plain, like a Russian smock or a middy-blouse.
Not since the days when old Mr. Ducker14 used to
talk to me in the store and spit tobacco juice all round me, have I had such an
experience as this, or been so much the pupil sitting at the feet of the teacher.
I
think the hourhours will
fly by in those great quiet rooms. rooms. You
wouldn't believe the neatness and order of them—never a pen crooked on his many
desks, all that marble and bronze and porcelain dis
dusted every day. You can touch a hundred objects, even the portfolios of drawings,
and never have a particle of dis dust left on your
fingers.
Now goodbye, I'll write you when Bakst and I are further along.
Lovingly Willa