PARIS, _Monday night, March, 1842_.
I have just received your letter, which has put me in a bad humour. So
it is your satanic pride which has kept you from seeing me. It is not
for me to reproach you, however, for I think I saw you the other day,
and was restrained from speaking to you by a feeling quite as paltry.
You say you are better than you were two years ago. It is very well for
you to say that. I admit that you are more beautiful, but, on the other
hand, you seem to have absorbed a good dose of selfishness and
hypocrisy. These may be very useful, but they are not qualities for one
to brag about. As for me, I have become neither better nor worse; I am
not more of a hypocrite than I was, and I may be wrong. Certain it is
that I am not loved more on this account.
Since this purse was not embroidered by your own fair hand, what do you
wish me to do with it? You ought, indeed, to give me some of your own
work; my mirror and my conserves deserve that much. You might at least
have told me whether you received them. When you go to Italy, and pass
through Paris, you will probably not find me here. Where shall I be? The
devil only knows. It is not impossible that I may meet you at the
_Studj_; but then, again, I may go to Saragossa to see that woman of
whom you say that you are worth as much as she. As for a sister, there
will be no other than herself. Tell me, therefore, and that before you
leave for Paris, when you expect to go to Naples, and whether you will
take charge of a volume for M. Buonuicci, the Director of the Pompeiian
excavations. When I go away I shall leave this volume either with
Madame de C. or elsewhere.
I recall having seen, a long time ago, a Madame de C. at a house where
there were some theatricals, in which I played the part of the fool. Ask
her if she remembers me.
Good-bye now, and for a long time, no doubt. I am sorry not to have seen
you. Write to me now and then. It will always be a great pleasure to
hear from you, even though you continue the beautiful system of
hypocrisy upon which you have entered so triumphantly. I will commend
you to Buonuicci, you and your society, as greatly interested in
archæology. You will be pleased with his cordiality.