Buenos Aires, the Seventh of July, 1937

(already my fourth week here)

My Fellow Tango Friend,

How sadly misguided I have been, doing nothing but acting the giddy goat in milongas, all because of saying ‘thank you’ to my dance partners after each song. Now that it is all terribly clear why some ladies walked away from me before the end of a tanda, I ought to tell you more about tango ‘thank yous’ :

Thank you at the end of a tanda may signify : ‘It simply felt like we were sharing a dream.’ Spiffing, I daresay.

After three songs : ‘It might be the stars, or the dance floor; it might be your perfume, or that natural ‘scent’ of yours. However, it just is not there for me.’ I suppose a tanda can be over before the fat lady sings after all…

After two songs : ‘I ought to tell you I have this highly contagious disease, which is more infectious when I listen to music. I ought to return to my seat at once, wouldn’t you say?’

And after one song? It is as direct as : ‘Pardon me; I have got to go to the lavatories…’

So if a dance partner thanks you early, see if they walk away first. If they do not, they may not have the slightest idea that it means‘adios’, so you might want to pass on this postcard – they might even thank you for it (in the conventional way, of course)

I shall write again next week. Toodle pip!

Arthur