Pray why is your poor little mother so irritable and desperate, in the very midst of an old age that when I last saw her was still so green and so gracious?  Is her deafness sudden?  Did she entirely lack philosophy and patience before these infirmities?  I suffer with you because I understand what you are suffering.

Another old age which is worse, since it is becoming malicious, is that of Madame Colet.  I used to think that all her hatred was directed against me, and that seemed to me a bit of madness; for I had never done or said anything against her, even after that vile book in which she poured out all her fury without cause.  What has she against you now that passion has become ancient history?  Strange! strange!  And, a propos of Bouilhet, she hated him then, him too this poor poet?  She is mad.

You may well think that I was not able to write an iota for these twelve days.  I am going, I hope, to start at work as soon as I have finished my novel which has remained with one foot in the air at the last pages.  It is on the point of being published but has not yet been finished.  I am up every night till dawn; but I have not had a sufficiently tranquil mind to be distracted from my patient.

Good night, dear good friend of my heart.

Heavens! don’t work nor sit up too much, as you also have sore throats.  They are terrible and treacherous illnesses.  We all love you, and we embrace you.  Aurore is charming; she learns all that we want her to, we don’t know how, without seeming to notice it.

What kind of a woman do you want as a companion for your mother?  Perhaps I know of such a one.  Must she converse and read aloud?  It seems to me that the deafness is a barrier to that.  Isn’t it a question of material care and continual diligence?  What are the stipulations and what is the compensation?

Tell me how and why father Hugo did not have one single visit after Ruy Blas?  Did Gautier, Saint-Victor, his faithful ones, neglect him?  Have they quarreled about politics?

CCXVIII.  TO GEORGE SAND March, 1872

Dear master,

I have received the fantastic drawings, which have diverted me.  Is there perhaps profound symbolism hidden in Maurice’s work?  But I did not find it. ...  Revery!

There are two very pretty monsters:  (1) an embryo in the form of a balloon on four feet; (2) a death’s head emanating from an intestinal worm.

We have not found a companion yet.  It seems difficult to me, we must have someone who can read aloud and who is very gentle; we should also give her some charge of the household.  She would not have much bodily care to give, as my mother would keep her maid.

We must have someone who is kind above all, and perfectly honest.  Religious principles are not objected to!  The rest is left to your perspicacity, dear master!  That is all.