Will ever come from my heart, I cannot say from my pen. Did not the
transformation of your fierce Sormano into Gina
make you laugh? "You ask
after my health. Well, it is better than
in Paris. Though I work enormously, the peacefulness
of the surroundings has its effect on the mind. What really tries and
ages me, dear angel, is the anguish of
mortified vanity, the perpetual friction of Paris life, the struggle
of rival ambitions. This peace
is a balm. "If you
could imagine the pleasure your letter gives me!--the long, kind
letter in which you tell me the most trivial incidents of your life.
No! you women can never know to what a degree a true lover
is interested in these trifles. It was an immense
pleasure to see the pattern of your new dress. Can it be a matter of
indifference to me to know what you wear? If
your lofty brow is knit? If our writers amuse you? If Canalis' songs
delight you? I read the books you read. Even
to your boating on the lake every incident touched me. Your letter is
as lovely, as sweet as your soul! Oh! flower of heaven, perpetually
adored, could I have lived without those dear letters, which for
eleven years have upheld me in my difficult path
like a
light, like a perfume, like a steady chant, like some divine
nourishment, like everything which can soothe and comfort
life. "Do not fail me! If you knew what
anxiety I suffer the day before they are due, or the pain a day's
delay can give me! Is she ill? Is _he_? I am midway
between hell and paradise. "_O mia cara diva_, keep up your music,
exercise your voice, practise. I am enchanted with the coincidence
of
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