AT BRIDLINGTON QUAY 

Argenteuil, 3 August 1881 
11 Boulevard Thiers 

Dear Frep, 

Drawing so heavily on your Exchequer Is a great embarrassment to 
me, but the anarchy which has wrought havoc with the housekeeping 
over the past 2 years and given rise to all sorts of arrears has been op- 
pressing me for some considerable time. On the 15th of this month 
Ihave £30 to pay in London, and this has been a weight on my mind 
since the day we left. 

When we shall return is far from clear. Every day we experience 
the same ups and downs here as we did in Eastbourne, only with 
the difference—as for instance yesterday-—that there are sudden 
and frightful bouts of pain. Our Dr Dourlen, who is an excellent doc- 
tor and fortunately lives quite close by, immediately intervened and 
used one of the powerful opiates which Donkin had been deliberately 
keeping up his sleeve. After that she* had a good night and today feels 
so well that she got up for once as early as 11 o’clock and is finding dis- 
traction in the company of Jenny and the children.’ (The diarrhoea 
was stopped on the 2nd day after our arrival. From the start Dourlen 
had said that if it was merely an accident, it didn’t matter; but it 
might also be a symptom ofan actual intestinal infection. Fortunately 
this was not the case, therefore.) 

The temporary ‘improvements’ do not, of course, inhibit the natural 
course of the disease, but they delude my wife and fortify Jenny — 
despite my objurgations —in the belief that our stay in Argenteuil 
should last as long as possible. I know better how things stand, and 
my anxiety is all the greater for that. Last night, mv racr, was the first 
occasion on which I had anything like a decent sleep. My thoughts, 
they are so dull and dead as turned a mill-wheel in my head.* And 
this is why I have so far remained exclusively in Argenteuil, neither 

@ Mrs Marx-? Jenny Longuet and her sons Jean, Henri, Edgar and Marcel -° A pa- 
raphrase from Goethe’s Faust (Der Tragödie Erster Teil, ‘Studierzimmer’). 

visiting Paris nor writing so much as a line to anybody there encou- 
raging them to come and visit me. Longuet has already heard 
Hirsch, * in the office of La Justice, express legitimate surprise at this 
‘abstention’. 

And, INTO THE BARGAIN, a Kotzebue-like drama has been played out 
here during the past 5 days. 

Jenny had, for cook, a very LIVELY YOUNG GIRL FROM THE COUNTRY With 
whom she was satisfied in every respect, since she also behaved most 
amiably towards the children. Her only testimonial from her last mis. 
Tress, wife of Dr Reynaud (another Argenteuil doctor), was a ‘nega- 
tive’ one to the effect that she had quitted her service voluntarily. 
Old Moruer Longuet who, so far as she is able, exercises a dictatorship 
over Jenny, was by no means satisfied with this, nor could she think of 
anything better to do than to go and write, off her own bat, to Ma- 
dame Reynaud. 

Madame Reynaud is a pretty coquette and her husband a dissolute 
jackass; hence things happen in this couple’s house that are much gos- 
siped about in Argenteuil. They didn’t know that their former maid had 
again taken service in the same locality, and with none other than 
Mr Longuet, an intimate friend of Dr Dourlen’s whose wife was an 
intimate enemy of Madame Reynaud’s! Tuts was To BE LOOKED 
AFTER. 

So one fine morning along comes Madame Reynaud — not, hith- 
erto, personally acquainted with Jennychen—, tells the latter that 
the girl had had improper affairs with men (e¢ Madame?) and, what is 
worse, is a thief having, dans l’espéce, stolen a gold ring of hers; she 
assures Jenny that she means to settle the matter en famille,< 
without appealing to the ‘autorités’ etc. Well and good, Jennychen 
SUMMONS THE GIRL, Madame Reynaud chats with and at THE SAME TIME 
threatens her, the girl confesses, returns the ring-— whereat Dr Rey- 
naud denounces the unfortunate creature to the juge de paix.* Upsuot: 
yesterday she was brought before the juge d’instruction at Versailles. 
As you know, the Code, being a relic of Roman Law whereby fam- 
lia= servi,‘ refers to Assizes petty crimes which would ordinarily 
come before a police court. 

In the meantime Jenny had made every imaginable representation 
to the juge de paix, an excellent man, but the matter had ceased to rest 

@ Carl Hirsch -” Here: in this particular case.-° Here: in private.-¢ police court magi- 
1 this par P P 
strate-° examining magistrate -' slaves 

with him the moment he had been officially notified of it. Neverthe- 
less, Jenny’s statements, which he wrote down, and la Reynaud’s 
extra-judicial procedure, which she also placed on record, will be of 
some benefit to the girl. 

Jenny’s defence of the girl surprised the juge de paix, but he took it 
all in a very light vein. Mais vous ne voulez pas défendre le vol? he 
asked her.— Mais non, Monsieur, commencez par arréter tous les grands 
voleurs d’Argenteuil, et de Paris par dessus le marché!* 

The immediate upshot is that she has no cook. The stupid cirt from 
London — sister of our one-time Carry — 1s Good FOR NOTHING IN THAT 
Ling and in any case has her hands full with the 4 children. 

Apropos. Nordau— who is taking Hirsch’s place on the Vossische 
Keitung-— was awarded a French order! Whereupon Hirsch de- 
nounced him to La Justice! The latter attacked the government for 
decorating such a traducer of France (he is a German-Hungarian 
Jew who attacked Tissot on Bismarck’s behalf in his le vrai pays 
des milliards'), likewise Bleichröder who wished to encumber 
la belle France with indemnities of 10 rather than 5 milliards. 

That jackass Nordau, presently in Paris, replied to La Justice, in 
a letter in which he made himself out to be the champion of France. 
Whereupon he was unmasked in La Justice and, the day after, in La 

République frangaise. 
Salut. 
Your 
Moor