CÉCILE VOLANGES TO SOPHIE CARNAYai
IF I HAVE TOLD you nothing about my marriage, it is because I know no more about it than I did the first day. I am accustoming myself to think no more of it, and I am quite satisfied with my manner of life. I study much at my singing and my harp; it seems to me that I like them better since I have no longer a master, or perhaps it is because I have a better one. M. le Chevalier Danceny, the gentleman of whom I told you, and with whom I sang at Madame de Merteuil’s, is kind enough to come here every day, and to sing with me for whole hours. He is extremely amiable. He sings like an angel, and composes very pretty airs, to which he also does the words. It is a great pity that he is a Knight of Malta!8 It seems to me that, if he were to marry, his wife would be very happy…. He has a charming gentleness. He never has the air of paying you a compliment, and yet everything he says flatters you. He takes me up constantly, now about my music, now about something else; but he mingles his criticisms with so much gaiety and interest, that it is impossible not to be grateful for them. If he only looks at you, it seems as though he were saying something gracious. Added to all that, he is very obliging. For instance, yesterday he was invited to a great concert; he preferred to spend the whole evening at Mamma’s. That pleased me very much; for, when he is not here, nobody talks to me, and I bore myself:aj whereas, when he is here, we sing and talk together. He always has something to tell me. He and Madame de Merteuil are the only two persons I find amiable. But adieu, my dearest friend; I have promised to learn for today a little air with a very difficult accompaniment, and I would not break my word. I am going to practice it until he comes.
PARIS, 7TH AUGUST, 17–.