WHAT LIANE DE POUGY HAD TO SAY ABOUT NATALIE CLIFFORD BARNEY WHO SHE CALLED "MY FLOSSIE."

EXCERPT page 122

From Dec 22, 1920

I have written a hai-ku in honor of Nathalie-Flossie, whom I also used to call Moon-Beam.  I am sending her a picture of a little woman in a short frock smelling flowers in the moonlight; and because of our mutual longing to see each other is not stronger than the times, places and circumstances which keep us apart, here is my work.

O brilliant moon

We see each other better

From afar

***

EXCERPT page 140  January 28 1922

On Wednesday, lunch with Balthy.*** Louise was very gay, she had been dancing until three in the morning.  At present she is collecting blue and white from China and Persia.  She has blinds made of ostrich feathers and cushions made of fur.  I caught her in bed, having herself daubed with oil of turpentine by her masseuse as she reclined on pink crepe de chine sheets!  Nathalie came with Romaine Brooks to pick me up; they wanted to see her close too, and seemed disappointed.  Romaine was sporting the Legion of Honour.  Nathalie took me to Madeleine Vionette, the great dressmaker of the moment.  A plain dress of black crepe de chine, with no embroidery or decoration; 2,600 francs!  'What would its sale price be? - $1,600 francs.'  Nathalie was able to wrangle it and got it for 1,000 francs. But that's still dear, for a reduction.

The Flossie took us to Madame R., who was giving a tea party in my honor.  It was big, grand, cold, and comfortable.  I'm enormously fond of Madame R... but my Flossie!  What a matchless creature she is, what a rare wit!  She has it and inspires it.  When someone said her house is very dusty she answered :'But dust is pretty, it's furniture's face powder.'  We saw her little old mother, frisky, alert, sparkly.  Georges is mad about her.  An incredible youthfulness runs in her veins, shines in her eyes, curls her white hair and vibrates the feather in her hat  Long ago, in our wild young days, she disapproved of my relationship with her daughter.  I can hardly blame her.  We didn't stir up the past, pressed each others hands and paid each other compliments.

*** Notes

Flossie is Liane's nickname for Natalie Clifford Barney, who she uses Nathalie, the French version of her name, also.

Romaine Brooks is a woman that Natalie Clifford Barney had a long relationship with. 

Georges is Liane's husband, a Prince.  She goes by the name Princess Anne-Marie Ghika of Roumania.

Louise Bathy is the courtesan who first inspired Liane to choose the life of a courtesan.  As a young woman new to Paris she lived across the way from Louise, who was successful and rich as a result of her Courtesan lifestyle.

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