icable arrangement;
her letters, as in so many cases, tell, however, a very different tale.
Especially important is a letter written, on December 3, 1830, to Jules
Boucoiran, who had lately been tutor to her children, and whom, after
the relation of what had taken place, she asks to resume these duties
for her sake now that she will be away from Nohant and her children part
of the year. Boucoiran, it should be noted, was a young man of about
twenty, who was a total stranger to her on September 2, 1829, but whom
she addressed on November 30 of that year as "Mon cher Jules." Well, she
tells him in the letter in question that when looking for something in
her husband's writing-desk she came on a packet addressed to her, and
on which were further written by his hand the words "Do not open it till
after my death." Piqued by curiosity, she did open the packet, and found
in it nothing but curses upon herself. "He had gathered up in it," she
says, "all his ill-humour and anger against me, all his reflections on
my perversity." This was too much for her; she had allowed herself to be
humiliated for eight years, now she would speak out.

Without waiting a day longer, still feeble and ill, I
declared my will and mentioned my motives with an aplomb and
coolness which petrified him. He hardly expected to see a
being like me rise to its full height in order to face him.
He growled, disputed, beseeched. I remained immovable. I want
an allowance, I shall go to Paris, my children will remain at
Nohant.

She feigned intractability on all these points, but after some time
relented and consented to return to Nohant if her conditions were
accepted. From the "Histoire de ma Vie" we learn what these conditions
were. She demanded her daughter, permission to pass twice three months
every year in Paris, and an allowance of 250 francs per month during
the time of her absence from Nohant. Her letters, however, show that her
daughter was not with her during her first three months at Paris.

Madame Dudevant proceeded to Paris at the beginning of 1831. Her
establishment there was of the simplest. It consisted of three
little rooms on the fifth story (a mansarde) in a house on the Quai
Saint-Michel. She did the washing and ironing herself, the portiere
assisting her in the rest of the household work. The meals came from
a restaurant, and cost two francs a day. And thus she managed to keep
within her allowance. I make these and