Translations:CP 02844/11/en

As for me I am to go before a medical board and I shall probably be taken, because they take everybody. But I have been stupid because I didn’t need to get myself registered, having been struck off the staff as an officer and these Boards are only for privates, according to what Clément de Maugny told me, when he came to see me one evening as he was passing through Paris; a very nice chap, having much improved, probably under his wife’s influence. He spoke to me very kindly about you and with great admiration for your last book. I must say that he seemed to me infinitely less enthusiastic about Swann! And we have even both been sidelined by a book by somebody who he is close to and which is especially interesting, it appears, because it talks about “people we know”. He, [Maugny] has written a book (historical I think) and has spoken to me about “ready copies” (?). I don’t really know what that means. Aside from that, all very “couldn’t give a damn”, “the General said: send me [Maugny]", but also with a simplicity full of real grace, which even struck my housekeeper (who is also my cook, valet, etc.): “Such simplicity for a Vicomte! »