My dear Jacques, I'm probably picking up my quill for the last time today - what a nonsensical phrase! even among similar phrases! "picking up the quill" would have been the most atrocious way of correspondence! - to let you know about my existence, which is only distinguished by the fact that nothing is happening at all. Life goes on, it feels like being wrapped in a duvet: this country is for the "neutral" people, and the last three long months have gone and left nothing behind. See more

Had I been younger, I'd have thought of it as "revenues and expenses" and kept silent. Alas! Things are very different now. Soon there will be an installation of suitcases in my home, and such a sad one. How is your wife's health? I don't understand why can't fate give you even a little break? No one wants it more than I do. Your old loyal friend, Claude Debussy.