GE to Eleanor Cross, Paris, 9 May [1880]
Title
GE to Eleanor Cross, Paris, 9 May [1880]
Title
GE to Eleanor Cross, Paris, 9 May [1880]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Eleanor Cross
Date(s)
- 1880-05-09
Place
Paris
Letter Content
GE to Eleanor Cross, Paris, 9 May [1880]
MS: Tinker Collection, Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 393-395.
H'f4tel Vouillemont | Sunday Morning May 9.
Dearest 'abElinor'bb Eleanor,
Your letter was a sweet greeting to us on our arrival here yesterday a little after 5 o'clock. The keys once received, our life was without a cloud (except that little one the size of a brooch, 406 always on the horizon). When we were walking by the sea-side at Dover we agreed either that wedding days had been much maligned or that ours was a marvellously exceptional one, for everything had seemed to us as blessed as it could be. Then the next morning we had a millennial cabin on the deck of the Calais-Douvre and floated over the strait as easily as the saints float upward to heaven (in the pictures). At Amiens we were very comfortably housed at the Hotel du Rhin and paid two enraptured visits, evening and morning, to the Cathedral. I was delighted with Johnnie's delight in it. And we read our dear old Cantos of the Inferno that we were reading a year ago, declining afterwards on [Eug'e9nie Grandet]. The nice woman who waited on us made herself very memorable to me by her sketch of her own life. She went to England when she was nineteen as a lady's maid -- had been much [ennuy'e9e de sa m'e8re] -- detested [les plaisirs,] liked only her regular everyday work and [la paix.]
At 1 o'clock we started on our easy journey to Paris, which would have been as pleasant as possible but that half way there came into our carriage a man who combined the facial expression of a crocodile and a Jamaica frog and really made me shudder by fixing his horrible gaze on me. It was some small relief to reflect that he was not an Englishman. At the Station du Nord we got a voiture with two toy horses and mistakenly ordered the coachman to drive to the H'f4tel Voltaire, Quai d'Orleans. He took us to the Quai d'Orleans where the H'f4tel Voltaire was not, and would go no farther without being paid his fare. That time he drove us to the H'f4tel Voltaire which is most attractively placed, but had no apartment at liberty. Second colloquy with the coachman who again demanded his fare. Finally he brought us to this H'f4tel 407 where we have a very fair apartment and plenty of sunlight, au premier. Between after-travel toilet and dinner we walked up to the Arc des Etoiles and back again enjoying the lovely growth and blossoms of the horse-chesnuts which are in their first glory, innocent of dust or of one withered petal. This morning at 12 o'clock we are going to the Russian church, where Johnnie has never been, and where I hope we shall hear the wonderful intoning and singing as I heard it years ago.
This is the chronicle of our happy married life three days long -- all its happiness conscious of a dear background in those who are loving us at Weybridge, at Thornhill and at Ranby. You are all inwoven into the pattern of my thoughts, which would have a sad look without you. I like to go over again in imagination all the scene in the church and in the vestry and to feel every loving look from the eyes of those who were rejoicing for us. Besides Professor Sellar's letter which touched Johnnie with grateful surprize, we have had one to him from Mr. Frederic Harrison saying everything affectionate which he suspected himself of having omitted in the personal interview, and two very finely felt letters from Edith 408 -- one to him enclosing the one to me. Certainly she has a rare generosity and elevation which find their only easy channel in writing. -- I had a delicious laugh over Henry's idea of the "Cooperative affair." Please tell him so with my love to him and to the gentle Berthe 409 who was an invisible presence at our wedding. And ask Mlle. Augustine 410 to accept my best remembrances.
I think I must thank Florence too for her letter to Johnnie, for we accept to the full the principle of [What is mine is thine] on each side. He is very busy at this moment writing to the eminent decorator and turning over the pages of the Estimate with a deeply reflective air -- and here too I apply the famous principle, leaving the virtuous work to him and calling it mine. But please, young Sister, remember my debt contracted to you when I had only my own merits to go upon -- namely, an unpaid debt for pretty lace things which you bought for me.
Write us word about everything, and especially let us know when you think you have found the right house in the right place, so that we as well as Willie, may make our objections. Please commend me to the mercy of the family critic, and consider yourselves all very much loved and spiritually petted by your loving
Sister.
Write next to the Poste Restante, Bourges.
MS: Tinker Collection, Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 393-395.
H'f4tel Vouillemont | Sunday Morning May 9.
Dearest 'abElinor'bb Eleanor,
Your letter was a sweet greeting to us on our arrival here yesterday a little after 5 o'clock. The keys once received, our life was without a cloud (except that little one the size of a brooch, 406 always on the horizon). When we were walking by the sea-side at Dover we agreed either that wedding days had been much maligned or that ours was a marvellously exceptional one, for everything had seemed to us as blessed as it could be. Then the next morning we had a millennial cabin on the deck of the Calais-Douvre and floated over the strait as easily as the saints float upward to heaven (in the pictures). At Amiens we were very comfortably housed at the Hotel du Rhin and paid two enraptured visits, evening and morning, to the Cathedral. I was delighted with Johnnie's delight in it. And we read our dear old Cantos of the Inferno that we were reading a year ago, declining afterwards on [Eug'e9nie Grandet]. The nice woman who waited on us made herself very memorable to me by her sketch of her own life. She went to England when she was nineteen as a lady's maid -- had been much [ennuy'e9e de sa m'e8re] -- detested [les plaisirs,] liked only her regular everyday work and [la paix.]
At 1 o'clock we started on our easy journey to Paris, which would have been as pleasant as possible but that half way there came into our carriage a man who combined the facial expression of a crocodile and a Jamaica frog and really made me shudder by fixing his horrible gaze on me. It was some small relief to reflect that he was not an Englishman. At the Station du Nord we got a voiture with two toy horses and mistakenly ordered the coachman to drive to the H'f4tel Voltaire, Quai d'Orleans. He took us to the Quai d'Orleans where the H'f4tel Voltaire was not, and would go no farther without being paid his fare. That time he drove us to the H'f4tel Voltaire which is most attractively placed, but had no apartment at liberty. Second colloquy with the coachman who again demanded his fare. Finally he brought us to this H'f4tel 407 where we have a very fair apartment and plenty of sunlight, au premier. Between after-travel toilet and dinner we walked up to the Arc des Etoiles and back again enjoying the lovely growth and blossoms of the horse-chesnuts which are in their first glory, innocent of dust or of one withered petal. This morning at 12 o'clock we are going to the Russian church, where Johnnie has never been, and where I hope we shall hear the wonderful intoning and singing as I heard it years ago.
This is the chronicle of our happy married life three days long -- all its happiness conscious of a dear background in those who are loving us at Weybridge, at Thornhill and at Ranby. You are all inwoven into the pattern of my thoughts, which would have a sad look without you. I like to go over again in imagination all the scene in the church and in the vestry and to feel every loving look from the eyes of those who were rejoicing for us. Besides Professor Sellar's letter which touched Johnnie with grateful surprize, we have had one to him from Mr. Frederic Harrison saying everything affectionate which he suspected himself of having omitted in the personal interview, and two very finely felt letters from Edith 408 -- one to him enclosing the one to me. Certainly she has a rare generosity and elevation which find their only easy channel in writing. -- I had a delicious laugh over Henry's idea of the "Cooperative affair." Please tell him so with my love to him and to the gentle Berthe 409 who was an invisible presence at our wedding. And ask Mlle. Augustine 410 to accept my best remembrances.
I think I must thank Florence too for her letter to Johnnie, for we accept to the full the principle of [What is mine is thine] on each side. He is very busy at this moment writing to the eminent decorator and turning over the pages of the Estimate with a deeply reflective air -- and here too I apply the famous principle, leaving the virtuous work to him and calling it mine. But please, young Sister, remember my debt contracted to you when I had only my own merits to go upon -- namely, an unpaid debt for pretty lace things which you bought for me.
Write us word about everything, and especially let us know when you think you have found the right house in the right place, so that we as well as Willie, may make our objections. Please commend me to the mercy of the family critic, and consider yourselves all very much loved and spiritually petted by your loving
Sister.
Write next to the Poste Restante, Bourges.
Signature
Sister.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Eleanor Cross, Paris, 9 May [1880], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/92286