PARIS, _Saturday night, January 15, 1844_.
I am grieved to know that you are ill, but you must permit me to form my
own opinion as to the manner in which you caught this cold. An accident
of this kind seldom keeps one in the house; still more seldom does it
confine one to the house as long as you remain there. All your illnesses
have occurred too conveniently not to be a little suspicious. Formerly
you were more unreserved. You wrote me simply a page of reproaches, and
admitted that you were angry. Now you follow a different system. You
write me sweet little coquettish notes, and say you have taken a sudden
cold, or that you are ill. I believe I prefer the former method.
Luckily, you get over your sulks and recover from your illnesses.
I hope to see you Tuesday in a cheerful mood, if you think it worth
while to be agreeable. Your treatment of me is like the sun, which
appears only once in a month. If I were in better spirits, I could
pursue the comparison still further; but I, too, am ill, only I am not
so fortunate as you in being petted by all who come near me, and of
being fond of tea made of dates and figs.
You ask me to make you a sketch of our woods. This would be almost
impossible without seeing them again. You can no longer remember
Bellevue, you say; you should understand, therefore, how difficult it
would be for me to draw it from memory. Besides that, I am not as close
an observer as you. When with you I see nothing else. Yes, these woods
are beyond belief, so close to Paris as they are, and yet so far away.
If you insist upon it, I will do the best I can, but you must first tell
me what you want to have, that is, what part of the woods.
Good-bye. I am not especially pleased with you. A month passed without
seeing you is a little too much. I have, to-morrow and the day after,
two unpleasant duties to perform. I will tell you about them. Good-bye.