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35

Thomas Hardy -- the greatest living writer.
Theodore Dreiser -- the greatest American author.
Anatole France -- greatest writer in last fifty years. 

And to show how well read I am, I've never read a book by any of them. I'm at least learning from Mr. D what I should read. ...... Last night there were about six of us testmen at the dance at church and since few had girls there was a big stag line and cutting in was in order. I was the only one of us testmen who had a girl and all proclaimed Lenore (Sterrett) the best one there. Allende and Castellino were present and there were Hoddy, Hoffman, Pledge and I besides, making six. Lenore is a mighty good dancer and we had a grand time. It was the first time I'd danced since Christmas. I danced with about everyone, which will please you, I know. A partial list follows: Mrs. Dutton, Mrs. Kloss, Lenore, Marie Elliot (Kitty in our play), Mrs. Benedict (Doug's friend), Mrs. Feidler (Allende's criterion of womanly excellence, and she [[underline]] is [[/underline]] lovely), Miss Coe, and others whose name I forget. Mrs. Benedict is a young lady and a very dear friend of Mary and Doug. Mrs. Benedict's mother is that lovely Mrs. Armstrong whom I once wrote you about and who is now sojourning in California. Mr. Armstrong died quite recently and was quite a noted engineer, being the inventor of the Erie steam shovel. At any rate, Mrs. Benedict surprised me by inviting me and Lenore out to dinner next Thursday night. You might think it not quite the thing for me to be going out to dinner at someone else's home with another girl but it really is for Lenore is engaged to a Phi Delt who is away for several months and everyone knows it. Besides, they know I'm engaged for I've seen to that out here. Therefore, everything's all open and I don't see why it isn't all right, do you. The Benedicts simply want a foursome, that's all.

[[underlined]] To Willie, February 26, 1926 [[/underlined]]: Monday evening, Hoddy (Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State) and Castellino (Goa, Portugese India, University of Bombay) and I called on the Duttons. To say we enjoyed the evening, is to put it mildly. The Reverend, as Mrs. Dutton calls him, did 90% of the talking but one never tires of listening to him, for everything he says is interesting. He has "Figures of Earth" up there and about all of Cabell's other books too. He has a copy of "Jurgen" in the front of which is a letter to him from Cabell in reply to a message he sent to the author telling him of "Jurgen's" rise into the pulpit (the Reverend preached a sermon on it). There's the signature "James Branch Cabell" and he writes very peculiarly, printing it in a manner quite similar to an engineer's lettering, like this as near as I can remember: ^[[James Branch Cabell]] The correct way to pronounce Cabell is with the accent on the first syllable, [[underlined]] Cab [[/underlined]]-ell instead of Cab-[[underlined]] ell [[/underlined]]. He also had a picture of Cabell in this copy of "Jurgen" and he doesn't look at all as I'd imagined (of course, they seldom do). He's a rather plain-looking man about