ho is your
best and truest friend.

"I acknowledge that I see a great deal of company; for every one is
eager to compliment me on your success, and I confess that I have not
resolution to close my door against those who speak of you. I also
confess that a great portion of my visitors are gentlemen. Men
understand your bold projects better than women; and they speak with
enthusiasm of your glorious achievements, while my female friends only
complain of you for having carried away their husbands, brothers, or
fathers.

"I take no pleasure in their society if they do not praise you. Yet
there are some among them whose hearts and understandings claim my
highest regard, because they entertain sincere friendship for you. In
this number I may mention ladies Arquillon, Tallien, and my aunt. They
are almost constantly with me; and they can tell you, ungrateful as you
are, whether _I have been coquetting with every body_. These are your
words. And they would be hateful to me were I not certain that you had
disavowed them, and are sorry for having written them.

"I sometimes receive honors here which cause me no small degree of
embarrassment. I am not accustomed to this sort of homage. And I see
that it is displeasing to our authorities, who are always suspicious and
fearful of losing their newly-gotten power. If they are envious now,
what will they be when you return crowned with fresh laurels? Heaven
knows to what lengths their malignity will then carry them. But you will
be here, and then nothing can vex me.

"But I will say no more of them, nor of your suspicions, which I do not
refute one by one, because they are all equally devoid of probability.
And to make amends for the unpleasant commencement of this letter, I
will tell you something which I know will please you.

"Hortense, in her efforts to console me, endeavors as far as possible to
conceal her anxiety for you and her brother. And she exerts all her
ingenuity to banish that melancholy, the existence of which you doubt,
but which I assure you never forsakes me. If by her lively conversation
and interesting talents she sometimes succeeds in drawing a smile, she
joyfully exclaims, 'Dear mamma, that will be known at Cairo.' The fatal
word immediately calls to my mind the distance which separates me from
you and my son, and restores the melancholy which it was intended to
divert. I am obliged to make great efforts to conceal my grief from my
daughter, who, by a word