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5bis Rue Agar, Paris 16e - Describes Paris: 'people are weary & waiting for the next war'; describes his journey there, and meeting an Australian girl he hopes to see when she travels to Paris again; is staying at a high quality house, landlady and tenants very kind; met Janine [?] and her family, likes her, but is not going to romance her; asks for Vera [Neuhoff?]'s address; will not thank him for his hospitality as he expects to return it in the U.S.

Describes people he's met in Paris; discusses job prospects: teaching high school children of the Army of occupation, re-educating Germans with UNESCO; thinks he has the gift of understanding communities intuitively the way PS understands people; will see Jean-Louis Barrault as Hamlet, details why ‘Brighton Rock’ is a disappointment, including the fact that PS told him the plot has ruined it though PS told him it wouldn’t; continues the letter later that afternoon dismissing the UNESCO job; had an interesting encounter he’ll tell PS about in person; his banking, expenses; the beard means no one takes him for a Yank, is also different in that he tries to speak French; as for Brenda [Dumaresq?], he’s said all he can say, thinks PS will hurt her and himself; discusses the movie ‘Boomerang’, which he admires.

Paris is entertaining and restful; saw [Jean-Louis] Barreult [recte Barrault]'s Hamlet, which would have been overdone for Cyrano; discusses 'Hamlet', 'Brighton Rock', 'Four Quartets', and Conrad, thinks Conrad can weave a spell, but is prone to bad writing; will have to talk when they meet about increasing American sense of responsibility manifesting itself as belligerence; went to a Debussy concert played by the 'putrid' Opera House orchestra; hearing 'Iberia' makes him believe in the Platonic theory of knowledge, given his certainty that it was a great piece of music being played wretchedly; continues their conversation about why Spain at her height culturally produced no great music, and PS's theory that they had no contact with the West and an isolated nobility; Paris is a musical void unless you take into account the language; has not pursued the friendship with Vera [Neuhoff?]; the idea of going to Berlin is probably on hold given the current situation; discusses 'Boomerang' further; agrees with his comments on the Chandler genre; doesn't know what he'll do if he doesn't land a teaching job.

Writes from Paris. The Australian girl he met has gone home, which has given him a idea of PS's life of isolation from people; will be in Cambridge next Tuesday; tells him he dropped Vera [Neuhoff?] because he just wanted her French and her contacts; finished Conrad's 'Arrow of Gold'; was amused by his treatise on his absent-mindedness; is delighted at the improvement in his 'home situation'; thinks the 'smash' with Brenda [Dumaresq?] was a happy ending for Peter at least.

123 rue de la Tour, Paris XVIe - Shares her observations of him, arguing that it is still a true portrait even if she does not know him well: "vous êtes essentiellement brillant et vous savez que vous l'êtes. Vous tirez parti de ce don -- comme une femme attirante de son charme.... Je crois ... que vous enterrez, sous la carapace de os facilités naturelles, soit ce que fait la substance de votre 'vous'".