CCXXXIV. TO GEORGE SAND
Croisset, Thursday
Dear master,
In the letter I received from you at Luchon a month ago, you told me
that you were packing up, and then that was all. No more news! I
have permitted myself to assume, as the good Brantome would say,
that you were at Cabourg! When do you return? Where do you go then?
To Paris or to Nohant? A question.
As for me, I am not leaving Croisset. From the 1st to the 20th or
25th of September I shall have to go about a bit on business. I
shall go to Paris. Write then to rue Murillo.
I should like very much to see you: (1) to see you; (2) to read you
Saint-Antoine, then to talk to you about another more important
book, etc., and to talk about a hundred other things privately.
CCXXXV. TO GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Nohant, 31 August, 1872
My old troubadour,
Here we are back again at home, after a month passed, just as you
said, at Cabourg, where chance more than intention placed us. We all
took wonderful sea baths, Plauchut, too. We often talked of you with
Madame Pasca who was our neighbor at table, and had the room next
us. We have returned in splendid health, and we are glad to see our
old Nohant again, after having been glad to leave it for a little
change of air.
I have resumed my usual work, and I continue my river baths, but no
one will accompany me, it is too cold. As for me, I found fault with
the sea for being too warm. Who would think that, with my appearance
and my tranquil old age, I would still love EXCESS? My dominant
passion on the whole is my Aurore. My life depends on hers. She was
so lovely on the trip, so gay, so appreciative of the amusements
that we gave her, so attentive to what she saw, and curious about
everything with so much intelligence, that she is real and
sympathetic company at every hour. Ah! how UNLITERARY I am! Scorn me
but still love me.
I don't know if I shall find you in Paris when I go there for my
play. I have not arranged with the Odeon for the date of its
performance. I am waiting for Duquesnel for the final reading.--And
then I expect Pauline Viardot about the 20th of September, and I
hope Tourgueneff too, won't you come also? it would be so nice and
so complete!
In this hope which I will not give up, I love you and I embrace you
with all my soul, and my children join me in loving you and
summoning you.