The following is in answer to a set of numbered questions, of which
the first three are of no general interest.
_[Menton], Monday, January 19th, 1874._
ANSWERS to a series of questions.
* * * * *
4. Nelitchka, or Nelitska, as you know already by this time, is my
adorable kid's name. Her laugh does more good to one's health than a
month at the seaside: as she said to-day herself, when asked whether she
was a boy or a girl, after having denied both with gravity, she is an
angel.
5. O no, her brain is not in a chaos; it is only the brains of those who
hear her. It is all plain sailing for her. She wishes to refuse or deny
anything, and there is the English "No fank you" ready to her hand; she
wishes to admire anything, and there is the German "schoen"; she wishes
to sew (which she does with admirable seriousness and clumsiness), and
there is the French "coudre"; she wishes to say she is ill, and there is
the Russian "bulla"; she wishes to be down on any one, and there is the
Italian "Berecchino"; she wishes to play at a railway train, and there
is her own original word "Collie" (say the o with a sort of Gaelic
twirl). And all these words are equally good.
7. I am called M. Stevenson by everybody except Nelitchka, who calls me
M. Berecchino.
8. The weather to-day is no end: as bright and as warm as ever. I have
been out on the beach all afternoon with the Russians. Madame Garschine
has been reading Russian to me; and I cannot tell prose from verse in
that delectable tongue, which is a pity. Johnson came out to tell us
that Corsica was visible, and there it was over a white, sweltering sea,
just a little darker than the pallid blue of the sky, and when one
looked at it closely, breaking up into sun-brightened peaks.
I may mention that Robinet has never heard an Englishman with so little
accent as I have--ahem--ahem--eh?--What do you say to that? I don't
suppose I have said five sentences in English to-day; all French; all
bad French, alas!
I am thought to be looking better. Madame Zassetsky said I was all green
when I came here first, but that I am all right in colour now, and she
thinks fatter. I am very partial to the Russians; I believe they are
rather partial to me. I am supposed to be an _esprit observateur! A mon
age, c'est etonnant comme je suis observateur!_
The second volume of _Clement Marot_ has come. Where and O where is the
first?--Ever your affectionate