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

38 Halcyon Days No More
von Richthofen, an important aircraft for o√ensive patrols, escort work,
and ground sta≈ng.
In late December, he sent this poignant message: ‘‘We had no holiday
on Xmas or Boxing Day, so we amused ourselves . . . bombed the Mess
with confetti, soot, holly, etc. I dropped Xmas cards to di√erent fellows I
knew. . . . On Boxing Day I had to take charge of the funeral party of the
fellow who was killed. . . . The walk (slow march) in the cold and the last
post and firing were very depressing. . . . had a splendid Xmas dinner but
not really jolly, for a good many it was the first away from home.’’
Julia moved to London while Olga was preparing for her next concert.
They sublet an apartment in Belsize Park, near their former home on Hill
Road, as a temporary lodging, retaining the rue Chamfort apartment for
Olga’s concerts in Paris. In London, ‘‘aliens’’ were required to present
themselves at the police station at Tottenham Court Road, and Julia resented
waiting her turn in a long line with the ‘‘enemy,’’ while her sons
were fighting with the British forces.
In February 1918, Arthur’s squadron was posted to the Veneto, joining
the Italian Expeditionary Force at San Pietro near Venice. There he established
a friendship with Gabriele D’Annunzio, and in a letter to Julia he
enclosed a snapshot of the poet-hero standing by his plane. Olga was
engaged to play a benefit concert for the Italian Red Cross at the British
Institute in Florence, and went there to stay with Katherine Dalliba-John,
hoping to see her brother. But Arthur’s squadron was sent back to France
before he could arrange leave.
Egerton Grey was angling for a posting in the Mediterranean, and he
stopped o√ in Florence for a day and a night on his way to his next base
in Malta. Olga kept no record of Egerton’s visit, but the strong emotions
of that meeting may have caused her to become careless: she lost her
first very fine violin, a Klotz, the gift of her mother. She and Ramooh were
en route to a restaurant in one of the old-fashioned open cabs with a
‘‘cradle’’ in back where the cab’s canopy was stored when not in use. Olga
placed the violin case in the cradle behind her, and when she stepped out,
the cab sped away. ‘‘I did not tell Mother, alone in London, with so
much to worry about with the boys.’’ She temporarily replaced it with
Ramooh’s gift of fifty pounds, ‘‘but I never had [one] as good’’—until