_The_ Presidente de Tourvel _to the_ Viscount de Valmont.
Why, Sir, do you endeavour at a diminution of my gratitude to you? Why
obey me only by halves, and in some measure make a bargain of a simple,
genteel act? It is not, then, sufficient that I am sensible of its
value! You not only ask a great deal of me, but you demand what it is
impossible to grant. If my friends have talked of you to me, they could
only do so from regard for me: should they even be mistaken, their
intention was not the less good; and yet you require that I should
repay this proof of their esteem, by giving you up their names. I must
own I have been very wrong in acquainting you of it; and I now feel it
in a very sensible manner. What would have been only candour with any
one else, becomes imprudence with you, and would be a crime was I to
attend to your request. I appeal to yourself, to your honour; how could
you think me capable of such a proceeding? Ought you even to have made
me such a proposition? No, certainly; and I am sure, when you reflect,
you will desist from this request.
The other you make of writing to me is little easier to grant; and if
you will think a moment, you cannot in justice blame me. I do not mean
to offend you; but after the character you have required, and which you
yourself confess to have partly merited, what woman can avow holding a
correspondence with you? And what virtuous woman could resolve to do
that which she would be obliged to conceal?
If I was even certain that your letters would be such as would give
me no cause of discontent, and that I could always be conscious I was
sufficiently justified in receiving them, then, perhaps, the desire
of proving to you that reason, not hatred, guided me, would make me
surmount those powerful considerations, and cause me to do what I ought
not, in giving you sometimes permission to write to me; and if, indeed,
you wish it as much as you express, you will readily submit to the only
condition that can possibly make me consent to it: and if you have any
gratitude for this condescension, you will not delay your departure a
moment.
Give me leave to make one observation on this occasion: you received
a letter this morning, and you did not make use of that opportunity
to acquaint Madame de Rosemonde of your intended departure as you
promised me; I now hope that nothing will prevent you from keeping your
word. I hope much that you will not wait for the interview you ask,
which I absolutely will not agree to; and that, instead of the order
that you pretend to be so necessary, you will be satisfied with my
request, which I again renew to you. Farewell, Sir!
_Aug._ 27, 17—.