Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound: "What Thou Lovest Well..."

34 Halcyon Days No More
and the Princesse de Polignac (who would later sponsor Olga’s career)
were among the distinguished patrons. Critics noticed Olga Rudge, ‘‘a
distinctly promising young artist.’’
Back in Paris, Arthur and Teddy often joined Egerton Grey at the
Duncans. After recovering from his wounds at Gallipoli, Egerton volunteered
to serve as a surgeon-sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy and would
soon return to the Black Sea. His ship, the H.M.S. Nereïde, was taking part
in rescue operations of Russian refugees fleeing the Revolution, and his
services were valued as an interpreter fluent in both French and German.
The first cases of typhoid erupted at the Lycée, but Arthur was spared.
At the hospital, Teddy witnessed his first death and helped to put ‘‘poor
M.’’ in the bier and carry him to the morgue, saw the co≈n enveloped in
the Tricolor with the aging Veterans of 1870 giving the final salute. He
heard from the brother of a friend at the Anglo-Saxon School that ‘‘poor
Howilies has been killed—only 19-plus, and a promising career ahead.’’
Olga and Julia returned to Paris for Christmas. Olga noticed how
crowded the boulevards were. Even in wartime, Julia continued the musical
teas on the rue Chamfort. Teddy jotted in his diary that ‘‘Mother reads
Hamlet to us in the evenings.’’ He was beginning to study Greek history:
‘‘Resolved, to learn as much as possible.’’
In this longest, coldest winter of the war, many fingers and toes were
lost to frostbite. For the first time, Teddy assisted with an amputation: ‘‘I
held the leg, the foot was cut o√. . . . Dr. P. dissected the foot to show how
far the rotteness went . . . [then] put the drain in . . . and I held the stump.’’
In o√-duty hours, he observed firsthand the gangrenous microbes through
a delicate microscope at the Pasteur Institute—and for relief he enjoyed
performances of Le Jongler de Notre Dame and Les Amoureux de Katherine
at the Opéra Comique (with Martha Chental in both leading roles).
A letter from Father on Teddy’s birthday enclosed a generous check
and another plea for the family to return home. In Julia’s view, crossing
the Atlantic was too dangerous after so many lives had been lost on the
Lusitania. She optimistically predicted that ‘‘the war to end all wars’’
would soon be over, and her goal was to see Olga firmly established as a
major concert artist in Europe.