Translations:CP 03787/10/en
After having written to you, for the fiftieth time I am looking at this beautiful arabesque design, and here are the words "Cité de Retiro", an Élysée in Élysée which, being named by you become the "Champs-Élysées", glowing in letters of fire. Tomorrow I shall write to Cité de Retiro [1] to find out what this mysterious address can relate to. No doubt I shall find a use for my cork there as I won’t be able to put it up in my new lodgings which I am leaving boulevard Haussmann for. (I am leaving because the building has been sold to a banker, who in good M. Josse[2] fashion wants to turn it into a bank, and to do that he is making all the tenants leave, without understanding that it will be the death of at least one of those who he uproots.) Moreover I believe that fortifications, even those of Liège, have had their day[3]. And it occurs to me that it would be better to apply the means of defence to the ears. Mme Simone spoke to me about some ivory balls[4] (I would really like to find more details about them!) the Duchesse de Guiche mentioned cotton wool in vaseline. But no doubt these ladies are less sensitive to noise than I, who am terribly ill, dying.