I await your reply—and your anger!
TO THEOPHILE GAUTIER.
1863.
What a charming article, my dear Théo, and how can I thank you for it? If anyone had said to me, when I was twenty years old, that Théophile Gautier, with whom my imagination was filled, would write such things about me, I should have become delirious with pride!
Have you read the third philippic of Sainte-Beuve? But your panegyric of Trajan avenges me.
May I expect you the day after to-morrow? Tell Toto to give me an answer regarding this.
Your old friend.
TO THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.
Monday evening, 1863.
My old Théo: Do not come Wednesday. I am invited to dine with the Princess Mathilde that evening, and we should not have time for a chat before dinner. Let us put it off until Saturday. Ducamp has been notified.