The following letter is the answer to mine in which I wrote that I had
been told at a florist’s that he was married and that the presence of a
Madame Nobel had been announced in Nice. I asked whether I might
congratulate him. He wrote back:
Dear Baroness and Friend:
What an ingrate this old Nobel is, but in appearance only, for the
friendship which he feels for you only increases, and the nearer he
approaches the final nothingness the more he values the few
persons—men or women—who show him a little genuine interest.
Could you have really believed that I was married, and married without
informing you? That would have been a double crime against friendship
and against courtesy. The bear has not as yet got so far as that.
In making me married, the florist was using flowery language. As for
Madame Nobel of Nice, it was in all probability my sister-in-law. That
is how the secret and mysterious marriage is explained. Everything
does in the end get explained in this world below, except the
magnetism of the heart, to which this same world is indebted for its
existing and living. Now this magnetism is just what I must be lacking
in, since there is no Madame Nobel and since in my case the dust that
is thrown in the eyes is inadequately replaced by gunpowder.
You see there is no _jeune femme adorée_—I am quoting word for
word—and I shall not find in that direction a remedy against my
_nervosité anormale_—once more a literal quotation—or against my
gloomy ideas. A few delicious days at Harmannsdorf might perhaps cure
me, and if I have not as yet replied to your arch-amiable and friendly
call of hospitality, that comes from a multitude of reasons which I
will explain to you by word of mouth.
Whatever happens, it is absolutely necessary that I should come soon
to see you, for if not, who knows if I ever have this pleasure and
consolation. Fate, alas! is unwilling to be converted into an
insurance company; and yet we would offer her very tempting premiums.
I beg of you, assure your husband of my best sentiments; as for
yourself, it is idle to reaffirm to you my affectionate and fraternal
devotion.