_Sunday, December 19, 1842._
It is evident that you have had professors in Greek and in German, but
one may be permitted to doubt if you have had any in Logic. Really, was
such reasoning ever heard of!--for instance, when you say you do not
want to see me, because, whenever you see me, you fear you shall never
see me again. By such reasoning, I consider your letter as null and
void. The only thing which I can make out is that you have a
handkerchief to give me. Send it to me, or say that I may receive it
from your own hand, which would suit me much better. I hate surprises
that are announced beforehand, because I imagine them much more
beautiful than they prove to be.
Agree with me, and let us see the Museum once more together. If I bore
you, that will be the end of it, and I shall not take you there again;
if not, what prevents our meeting from time to time? Unless you give me
some intelligible reason, I shall persist in believing that which seems
to vex you so much. I should have written to you immediately, but I had
mislaid your letter, which I wished to read again. I turned my desk
topsy-turvy, and set it in order, which is no trifling matter. Finally,
after burning several reams of old papers, which had seemed destined to
collect dust on my desk, I concluded that your letter had vanished by
some sort of witchcraft. I found it awhile ago in my Xenophon, where it
had hidden itself, I don’t know how; and I have read it again with
admiration. Assuredly you feel very little of that veneration of which
you sometimes speak, else you would not say so many _sinrazones_; but I
will forgive you, if you will let me see you soon, for you are much more
agreeable when you talk to me than when you write.
I am distressingly ill, and cough hard enough to rend rocks apart, yet I
am going Monday evening to hear Mademoiselle Rachel recite from _Phèdre_
before five or six great men. She will believe that my cough is an
intrigue against her. Write to me soon. I am horribly blue, and you
would be doing an act of charity to say something kind, as you do
occasionally.