CP 03097/en
Marcel Proust to Lionel Hauser Saturday 13 May 1916
(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)
Saturday 13 May 1916
My dear Lionel
I thank you for keeping an eye on things, and admire at the same time that your double mentality as a native of an allied country (Portugal)[1] and as an adopted Frenchman makes you look with care for opportunities to help M. Ribot, either by the subscription to the national loan (that the big banks advise, without facilitating it) or the loan of neutral stocks [2]. To get to the latter, I will remind you, which, I understand has not remained engraved in flamboyant characters between your most striking memoires, that I have, on your advice, sold a few months ago Nord Espagne, Saragosse and Hollandais, stocks that you quoted me and that I no longer possess[3]. On the other hand I have the Suez and Egyptian (and even the Brazilian). If credit doesn’t prevent, or make the sale difficult, I’ll be in favour of it. But you know the Egyptian appears on my list of stocks the sale of which has to reimburse my debts to the Crédit Industriel[4]. As on this list, except the aforementioned stocks and Interborough, the Crédit Industriel, perhaps weak, perhaps strong, has not yet been able to sell anything, I would not like to handover my Egyptian stocks to the Finance Minister, if that does not prevent me from selling them for no longer paying 8% interest, without accounting for quite obscure “agios/overdraft charges” and “moratory” interests [5] (“God these things are put in gallant terms”) [6]. Do not take pains to respond to me in that regard. If you tell me to offer the Minister of Finances my Suez and my Egyptians (I also have Crédit Foncier Egyptians), I will conclude that the loan does not prevent the sale and I will sign all that you send to me to sign. As for the substitution of securities, would not the 5% bearer bonds be more useful in case extinguishing my debt requires some sales later on? Once again on this point you have not responded to me. If you have to intervene with Crédit Industriel in order to accept this substitution, you really should at the same time advise them to be satisfied, having earned so much at my expense, with 6% (but without implicating the Director of the Agency. Otherwise I would prefer to pay 8%)[7]. At the time I wanted you to tell me if banks like the Banque Rothschild and the Crédit Industriel notify their clients when they pay dividends. I have property shares, municipal shares, a bond from the Presse, and I never watch the drawing of lots. Finally to conclude, my pharmacist [8] presenting me with an astonishing bill for the end of the year[9], it would be very kind of you to tell me what I am able to take out of your bank.
The mystery of the Caucasian persists: the day after I accepted Leon’s transaction he made 10 francs on a bond that has not moved since[10].
A thousand grateful affections from your
Marcel Proust