D.V. Read Online Free

inChaillot” and “Baronne not to know” and…et cetera. This little old man…just think of it: he was the only person in the world who knew that there was a girl with a mole on the left hip very much desired by the Duc de Quelque Chose at one time but who, since his passing, was not perhaps assez connue— and therefore should bring a big price! I mean, this was something fantastic. You couldn’t make it up, because, as everyone knows, truth really is stranger than fiction.
    The great ones were the English. They were marvelous. Their demands were very, very firm. The demimondaines could have as many lovers as they wanted as long as nobody knew it. The demimondaines had their own newspapers; they had their own hairdressers; they had their own dressmakers. You’ve seen Gigi . They knew how to test a cigar; they knew brandy, and they knew wine; they could pick out chefs. Many of the men did not live in Paris, but they maintained great houses there. A marvelous old girl who used to work for Christian Dior told me, “And don’t forget, Madame Vreeland, that we were often the front for the Englishmen who only came for the boys. The girls were the front. We ran the house; it was apparently for us. We’d get a pink pearl from an archduke and a gray pearl from a grand duke, and it was all very luxurious and wonderful. The gentleman had to be kept absolutely immaculate in the eyes of his friends…putting on a show with the new sable coats and the new pair of grays and the beautiful carriages, and the whole bit.” She used to tell me a lot, because she had been so magnificently well kept herself.
    In 1909 Diaghilev brought Ida Rubinstein to my parents’ house on the avenue du Bois. He thought my mother had wonderful taste. It was very important to him. If my mother approved, Ida Rubinstein, a great beauty and a totally unknown dancer who was being championed by Fokine and Bakst, would play the title role in Cléopâtre , and Lord Guinness would help to pay for the entire season of the Ballets Russes at the Châtelet. Now Lord Guinness was one of the great keepers of Paris women. Perhaps he liked the boys as well. Therefore, to protect his reputation, so to speak…Ida Rubinstein would act as a kind of front.
    My sister and I, you know, missed nothing. No children do—unless you keep them locked up in a padded cell. I was behind a screen. And Ida Rubinstein came in….
    She was all in black—a straight black coat to the ground. In those days, you kept your coat on indoors because you never knew what the temperature would be. At the bottom of the coat was a wide band of black fox to here ; at the collar and cuffs were wide bands of black fox to here and here ; and she carried an enormous black fox muff—it was almost like sleeves—that she put her hands in as she came in the door. Under the coat she wore high black suede Russian boots. And her hair was like Medusa’s—these great big black curls, draped in black tulle, which kept them in place and just veiled her eyes. Then her eyes , through the veil…I’d never seen kohl before. If you’ve never seen kohl before, brother, was that a time to see it! These long, slow eyes—black, black, black— and she moved like a serpent. But there was no danger. She was long, lithesome, sensuous, sinuous…it was all line, line, line . She wasn’t a trained dancer, but she wanted to be in the ballet. I think she came from quite a rich family in St. Petersburg—a sexy Jewish girl with quite a lot of money.
    My mother was fascinated by her. She gave her approval to Diaghilev. I can remember her saying to him, “She may not be a trained dancer, but after all she has nothing to do but lie there with a look of complete pleasure on her face.”
    As you probably know, in this spectacle she was carried in on the backs of four Nubians, who naturally were dressed in solid seed pearls.