SD2201. Joseph Milsand to Claire Hélène Milsand
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 362–363 (in part).
Paris
30 August [1858]
My good mother.
You have indeed given me a great deal of pleasure; and without speaking of the baths, of the view of the sea and of my excursions in the environs of the Havre the times that I spent with the Browning family allowed me to enjoy their intimacy as I would never have been able to in Paris even if I had had many months to see them while visiting. But all this does not mean I didn’t really have reason to be worried at not receiving any letters. …
Tell me please the menu of your days in your first letter. Since you prefer not going to Marsannay, let us not talk any more of it for the moment. But when I am there we could spend two days together at the aunt’s house,-or you could go see Mrs Bard. If Joseph were not there I would not mind accompanying you.
One of the great pleasures of my stay in Le Havre was to make the acquaintance of the little boy. One has to see him in the house- He is completely extraordinary, moreover he is charming- Although he had never read his parents’ poetry I wish you had seen the poetry he wrote-and this does not keep him from being like a child of his age-but what appealed to me was his conscience, and his loving character.- He is appreciative of the least thing that one does for him: and absence does nothing to his affections. One night at dinner, his father had said an unfavorable word about a domestic in their service in Florence and for whom the child has a real passion. Immediately he lost his composure and they had to calm him down-another day when he had a little friend with him, and they had had them eat supper before the family, he suddenly came to his father very upset to tell him that the servant had given bad tea to his friend William and that she had refused to serve him fresh cakes on the pretext that she was saving them for the family’s supper. This made him indignant. His father agreed with him, and had the cakes served to William; but when afterwards he wanted to give some to the child himself, the child refused. It wasn’t for myself that I asked for them, he kept repeating, it was for William. And he stood fast. I believe (and truly I have been charmed by him) that I have won him over. I have taught him to make chairs with some brass, I helped him sail his boats on the sea, and I gave him a bow with some arrows, that happily, completely thrilled him. In short, mother, during my whole trip, I only had one vexation to spoil my satisfaction. It was fatigue, that I felt too often at night, that did not permit me to enjoy as I would have desired the chance to chat.
What are our vines saying? We certainly have not had any heat here, and I doubt that our grapes will be as advanced as we had presumed they would be. I have heard talk of strong storms-but by your silence I presume that we have been spared.- After the first days of September I will think of taking a day to go and see you- I am afraid that these holidays my stay will not be as long as usual still because of the Brownings. They nearly made me promise that I would try to be back in Paris to spend several more days with them. …
J Milsand
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library, Joseph Milsand Archive.
___________________
