With a wonderful knowledge of the effects of small type, the poetical
Lebrun and his counsellor have printed the "Advice to Julia" in italics.
What! the Dame Lebrun send friendly regards ("bien des amities") to
Julia! Why, isn't this the woman they trump up a story about, as having
been a perpetual source of jealousy to the neglected wife, and
monopolizing all the tenderness and pretty speeches of the once faithful
and still too conquering Misis? For our own part, we think it is a
shocking instance of female audacity, for the devourer of such
boat-loads of fish, and the visiter of M. and Madame Grimod, to affect
jealousy of Julia or any one else. Let her be contented with her Grimods
and oysters, and leave Julia to listen to the harpings of Apollo in
peace. We have another letter, dated a few days after the first, and
still from Havre.
"I received your letter, my dear friend, when I was on board a ship, and
read it on deck. We laughed amazingly at your epigrammatic witticisms;
your reputation is already established here. You are known as a man of
genius; so you may judge if they listened to your letter. M. Grimod,
from the first, has been the trumpeter of your talents and wit; and the
best of the joke is, that on the strength of his descriptions of you,
they insist on believing that I am a person of infinite cleverness as
well. I am delighted to hear such good accounts of your health. I was
anxious to hear how you were. M. Grimod insists that I travel merely for
curiosity, and not for the sake of health; and this moment, let me tell
you in a parenthesis, he interrupts me to say he is sure I am writing my
best, I look so pleased in writing to you. To-morrow we are going to
breakfast in a ship, where the captain gives us a collation of all fine
things, among others chocolate; then we prepare to go to Rouen where we
shall stop two or three days to see the lions. We do nothing but go out,
change the scene, dress ourselves, and pack up our trunks. It is a
delightful life; we have scarcely time to breathe. But in spite of that,
I am grown very fat. I eat like four, and can't do without oysters. I
wished to bring you some present from this part of the country, but
there is nothing remarkable except the fish. Adieu, my dear friend! I
shall be delighted in relating all my experiences when we meet. I hope
some day you will visit these beautiful scenes, or others as beautiful;
and that the house-dove will take its flight to see all the beauties of
nature, which he knows so well how to paint. You will see that there is
no danger, and that I shall come back to you without any accident to my
wings."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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