PARIS, _August 31, 1861_.
DEAR FRIEND: I have received your letter, which seems to indicate that
you are happier than you have been in a long time. I am rejoiced at it.
There is in me little disposition to be fond of children; still, I can
understand how one should be attached to a little girl as to a young
cat, an animal with which your sex has many points of resemblance.
I am still ill and suffering, and am awakened every morning in a state
of suffocation, which soon passes. The solitude here is still complete.
I happened in at the Imperial Club yesterday and found there but three
persons, and they were asleep. The weather is insupportably warm and
sultry; as a change, they write me from Scotland that for forty days it
has rained in torrents, in consequence of which the potatoes are ruined
and the grain killed.
I am taking advantage of my solitude to work on something which I
promised my master, and which I should like to take to him at Biarritz,
but I am making slow progress. I have the greatest difficulty in doing
anything at all, as the least excitement causes me intense suffering. I
hope, however, to finish before the end of next week....
I have for you a copy of _Stenka Razine_. Remind me to give it to you
when I see you, and also to show you the portrait of a gorilla which I
drew in London, and with whom I was on terms of intimacy; ‘tis true, he
was stuffed.
I am reading little but Roman history; nevertheless, I have read with
great pleasure the nineteenth volume of M. Thiers. It seems to me to be
more carelessly written than the preceding volumes, but it is full of
curious things. In spite of his desire to say ill of his hero, he is
continually carried away by his involuntary affection for him. He tells
me that he will finish the twentieth volume in December, and that he
will then make a trip around the world, or else go to Italy.
There are stories of Montrond which interested me immensely; only I
regretted that he could not have heard them told while he was in this
world. It seems to me that M. Thiers describes him fairly enough, as an
adventurer in love with his trade, and honest in his dealings with his
principals so long as he was in their employ--quite like Dalgetty in the
_Legend of Montrose_.
Judging by what I can see, our artists accept kindly the little rule
which we have outlined for the Exposition in London; but when they shall
see the position given them, I am not sure but they will throw baked
apples at us. I have succeeded in extracting from M. Duchâtel the
promise to lend us _The Spring_ of M. Ingres. Good-bye, dear friend.