Maria, our new housekeeper, who was working for the Leslie Fiedlers in Forio, phoned yesterday afternoon from Rome and we went to meet her at Frascati.\u00a0 She nearly talked my ear off while we were having our risotto but Pavlik thinks it was from nervousness at the newness.\u00a0 I told P. that we must spoil her a little if we expect to be spoiled. He said she\u2019s going to cost us \u201clots of money,\u201d finds her full of \u201coil.\u201d\u00a0 Relationship with a servant is a vicious circle: you\u2019re not happy unless she\u2019s happy and she\u2019s not happy if you\u2019re displeased.<\/p>\n
\u2666<\/p>\n
Frankie asked me when am I going to get married, I said, \u201cDuring carnival time when you become a signorina, I\u2019m going to marry you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2666<\/p>\n
\u201cThat face has done everything,\u201d I said to Pavlik about Maria, \u201ca real Moll Flanders.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe moment you speak to her it\u2019s like an open faucet,\u201d says P.<\/p>\n
\u2666<\/p>\n
Gray Foy and Leo Lerman came out to lunch.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m an impossible man,\u201d Pavlik is saying to Gray, \u201cyou have to know that.\u00a0 You have to see what I\u2019m doing now\u2014the space is dancing\u2014space moves on a spiral line\u2014the form moves on an oval round thing \u2026 they walk, they dance …\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot like Duchamp?\u201d asks Gray.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow not like Duchamp!\u00a0 You think I\u2019m a damn fool?\u00a0 I\u2019m myself, not like anybody else.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I want to go to Paris\u2014people get up\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoesn\u2019t it make you uncomfortable?\u201d<\/p>\n
Gray is saying all the wrong things.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026Scholarship\u2026intellectual\u2026\u201d (about Uccello\u2019s drawing of the chalice).\u00a0 \u201cNot art but science\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pavlik says: \u201cI give you one advice\u201d\u2014Gray is an aspiring painter\u2014\u201clook at all the past\u2014don\u2019t come to the past with your little American ready-made ideas \u2026 go on your knees \u2026 very humbly.\u00a0 You come now from America with all the one-track mind.\u00a0 Look at everything and wait till everything turns over and clicks.\u00a0 If nothing turns over and clicks, pack your luggage and go back home \u2026.\u00a0 I feel so near to Egypt, I feel so near to the Etruscans\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2666<\/p>\n
\u201cI suffer when I see dirt\u201d\u2014Maria\u2019s line.\u00a0 Pavlik says she makes \u201cemotional chantage\u201d on him, like his sister, Choura: \u201cWipe my bitter tears\u201d\u2014Pavlik applies this phrase to Maria\u2019s habitual expression.<\/p>\n