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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, January 8, 1932

Finance Ministry
Budapest
8.I.32Friday.

Just a line, dearest Mildred, to tell you that I’m most grateful for your letter of Nov. 11, written at sea, and am now obediently returning to the July 16 cri du coeur.“Cry of the heart.”

I’ve been having a very hot time these last three months, but am feeling a good deal better now—how much better I shall know next week, after I’ve met the hard-boiled guys of the Fin. Ctee.On October 25, 1920, the League of Nations had appointed an Advisory Economic and Financial Committee composed of two sections of ten members each and tasked with “the working out of measures of an economic and financial nature which have been submitted for adoption by Members of the League in accordance with the Covenant of the League.” at Geneva.

A kind friend called me up on the telephone just now and said she “thought I ought to know” that, the other night at dinner, some Hunks had said, when my name was mentioned “Oh, he’s no friend of Hungary’s.” My kind friend was surprised when I answered that I only hoped the Hunks in question were voicing their conviction loud and often enough for it to reach the ears of certain people, whom it might possibly dissuade from throwing dead cats at me at the forthcoming meeting at Geneva. ¿Que más da? ¡Paciencia y barajar, otra vez vendrán mejores!“Who cares? Have patience and shuffle the cards, things will be better again.” Paciencia y barajar is quoted from Cervantes’s Don Quixote de la Mancha (part 2, chapter 23). If I could go to Spain and spend some nights with the flamencos, and eat a cochino de leche“Suckling pig.” at Casa Botín,Casa Botín was a famous Madrid restaurant and reportedly the oldest restaurant in the world, dating from 1725. and drink some manzanilla I know of, how quickly I’d forget it all! And even so, tomorrow I’ll be at Venice (2 days there, in fasting and prayer, on road to Geneva.)

Well, things might really be a bit worse than they are here. We’ve now got a good Finance Minister (Korányi,Frigyes Korányi (1869–1935), a Hungarian politician and writer who served as minister of finance in 1919–1920, 1924, and 1931–1932. whom you may remember from Paris) and I feel that the tiller is no longer as badly jammed as it was when I came.

I had to interrupt all work on Vol. IL’art byzantin.—maddening just when only 2 clear days would have enabled me to finish it—but now the whole thing is complete in the printers’ hands, and first proofs have been corrected.

To my joy and surprise, they’ve shown my “Sacrifice of Abraham” capitalSee letter of July 24, 1929. at the French Art Exhib. at Burlington House.Exhibition of French Art, 1200–1900. The exhibition was held January 4–March 5, 1932, at the galleries of the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London. They call it “Balaam and the Ass”!!Capital with the Sacrifice of Isaac, Romanesque, ca. 1150, limestone, Ile-de-France, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acc. no. A.6-1968.

Bill has been with us for a fortnight, and has now started back for Oxford. He’s very well and happy.

Blessings on you, dearest Mildred. I’ll write again, properly,—soon. Love to Robert, too.

Yrs
R. T.

 
Associated People: William Royall Tyler
Associated Things: L'art byzantin