Your postscript deserves a punishment, and here it comes dated from St. Gervais. I do not know whether your charming sister-in- law, Madame Pavy, will consider this stamp of St. Gervais worthy to appear in her collection; be that as it may, it gives me no less a pleasure to converse a little with you who are always so charming, so versatile, so excellent, and, permit me to say, so kind to me.

Mademoiselle Merienne, whom I saw only quite lately (for you must know that during the whole month of July, of glorious memory, I have barely condescended to go down once or twice to Geneva; I was living in a little bit of a house on the mountain, whence, let me say parenthetically, it would have been quite easy for me to hurl sermons and letters at you); Mademoiselle Merienne (what shall I say to you after such an enormous parenthesis?), somewhat like (by way of a new parenthesis) those declaimed discourses of Plantade or Lhuillier, which put a stop to music whilst nevertheless admitting that there is such a thing, whether at the beginning or at the end—Mademoiselle Merienne—au diable Mademoiselle Merienne! You guess by this time that she gave me tidings of you, that she is a delightful and enchanting person, that she makes admirable portraits, and that mine, amongst others, has been a wonderful success. Etc., etc., and always etc…

And yet I do wish to talk to you about this good Mademoiselle Merienne, for she said a heap of charming things to me for your sake, which will certainly not astonish you. But how to set about it after all this preamble of parentheses? Ah, I have it!—In three or four weeks I shall come and knock at your door.—And then? Well, then we will chatter away at our ease. So much the worse for you if you are not satisfied with my cunning stratagem. Now let us talk business; yes, seriously, let us talk business!

Has your brother returned from his journey? And is he well? And has no accident happened to him on the way? You are surprised, perhaps, at my anxiety; but by-and-bye you will understand it without difficulty, when I have explained to you how terribly interested I am in the fact of his journey being safely accomplished.

Just imagine that at this moment I have only 200 fr. in my purse (a ridiculously small sum for a traveler), and that it is M. Pavy who is to be my financial Providence, considering that it is to him that my mother has confided my little quarterly income of a thousand francs. Now at this point I must entrust you with a little secret, which at present is only known to two individuals, Messrs. Paccard and Roger (charming names for confidants, are not they?), and which I beg you to make known as quickly as possible to your brother. It concerns a little scrap of paper (which these rogues of bankers call a draft, I believe), for a thousand francs, by which Messrs. Paccard and Roger are authorized by my signature, which is at the bottom, to demand the above sum of a thousand francs (which my mother entrusted to M. Pavy in Paris) from M. Pavy, junior, living at La Glaciere at Lyons, after the 22nd of August, 1836.

A thousand pardons for troubling you with these details, but I should never have had the courage to write direct to your brother, on account of my profound ignorance in money matters.

You tell me that you passed part of the fine season in the country—why did not you arrange so as to tour for a little among the mountains of Switzerland? I should have had such pleasure in doing the honors, and Mademoiselle Merienne also…but don't let us speak any more of Mademoiselle Merienne (who, be it observed in parenthesis, must have already appeared a dozen times in this letter), for fear of again falling into inextricable parentheses.

Au revoir then; in five weeks at latest I shall come and warm myself at your "glacier."

F. Liszt

11. To Abbe de Lamennais