GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Paris, 13 May 1880
Title
GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Paris, 13 May 1880
Title
GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Paris, 13 May 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mary Finlay Cross
Date(s)
- 1880-05-13
Place
Paris
Letter Content
GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Paris, 13 May 1880
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Hotel Vouillemont | Thursday May 13.
Dearest Mary
We got the budget from Bourges this morning as well as your own dear letter and enclosures, and our breakfast -- the first we have taken without the accompaniment of a blazing fire -- was much enlivened and lengthened by our reading aloud what our friends had said of us and to us. Johnnie was modest and would not go on reading his own praises, which of course were what I most wanted to hear, so in these crises I snatched the letters from him and read for myself. The dear Uncle's letter is admirably descriptive of the various stages of wonderment he has had to pass through, and I think I enjoyed it most of all. Johnnie was especially touched and pleased by Mr. Pigott's affectionate words. 414 And we both think that Mr. Alexander Sellar's 415 letter is good and genuine in its tone -- written with a real effort to say the true, right thing. But every writer seems to me inspired who says that I have a good husband. If I have a sorrowful thought it still is that I may not have done the best for him.
We changed our plan of going to Bourges (for which I have always had a longing because of its painted glass) for the reason that always prevails when one thinks of going anywhere beyond France, namely, the difficulty of making a reasonable route without taking the main lines. So all our ingenious projects and ponderings over the map have issued in the usual course of travelling to Dijon one day, to Lyons the next, to Avignon the third. We are beginning to believe in heat and to expect that we shall get it by next week, but we are not afraid of it. Here we have had thoroughly enjoyable weather, but the wind has always been a little too cold for us to venture on an open carriage. Our attempt to hear the service at the Russian church was a failure, owing to false information about the time, but we were consoled by the delight Johnnie had in La Sainte Chapelle, which, wonderful to say, he did not know of before. Then we have spent one happy morning in the Louvre and another in the Mus'e9e du Luxembourg. But we are like two children in our fondness for the avenues of the Champs Elys'e9es and we have ended most of our afternoons by a walk to or from the Arc de l''c9toile looking at our fellow mortals who seem, like ourselves, immensely improvable, that is, leaving much to be desired, and at the chesnuts crowded with blossoms which no missionary could make fitter for the millennium than they are at this moment.
What most comforted Johnnie this morning was a letter from Albert, about the Chelsea business. His usual exclamation over anything from Albert is, that this brother-in-law is the most satisfactory of men!
I hope we are not wrong in gathering from your letter that the brooch is safe, but we had no word from Brett on the subject. I do trust Johnnie with the keys, he being the less absent-minded idiot of the two. I feel many little lacks and mistakes in my equipment, owing to hurry. For example I have nothing comfortable to write on, and my pen is like a needle point. But my miseries are all of this minute sort. I feel wonderfully strong and do a great deal of standing and walking without disagreeable effect.
We shall hope to hear that the Ranby measles have gone off mildly, in which case it will have been a good thing to have got the inevitable evil done with while the patients are little ones. Please keep us well informed about the house-hunting, and do not be too easily satisfied. We are to start tomorrow morning, you know, so that we might inquire on 'abFriday'bb Saturday at the Poste Restante Lyons, or on the following day (Sunday) at Avignon. Perhaps Avignon will be the only available place for you to send anything to. It is likely that we shall stay there more than one day. The sun is shining gloriously and Johnnie seems ready to go out. So I will leave everything else unsaid. The [everything else] means a thousand thoughts in common between him and me, about you, dear ones, and all the sweet life we hope to share with you.
Much love to those next door -- to Henry for his goodness in sending the welcome budget with his note.
Your loving
Sister.
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Hotel Vouillemont | Thursday May 13.
Dearest Mary
We got the budget from Bourges this morning as well as your own dear letter and enclosures, and our breakfast -- the first we have taken without the accompaniment of a blazing fire -- was much enlivened and lengthened by our reading aloud what our friends had said of us and to us. Johnnie was modest and would not go on reading his own praises, which of course were what I most wanted to hear, so in these crises I snatched the letters from him and read for myself. The dear Uncle's letter is admirably descriptive of the various stages of wonderment he has had to pass through, and I think I enjoyed it most of all. Johnnie was especially touched and pleased by Mr. Pigott's affectionate words. 414 And we both think that Mr. Alexander Sellar's 415 letter is good and genuine in its tone -- written with a real effort to say the true, right thing. But every writer seems to me inspired who says that I have a good husband. If I have a sorrowful thought it still is that I may not have done the best for him.
We changed our plan of going to Bourges (for which I have always had a longing because of its painted glass) for the reason that always prevails when one thinks of going anywhere beyond France, namely, the difficulty of making a reasonable route without taking the main lines. So all our ingenious projects and ponderings over the map have issued in the usual course of travelling to Dijon one day, to Lyons the next, to Avignon the third. We are beginning to believe in heat and to expect that we shall get it by next week, but we are not afraid of it. Here we have had thoroughly enjoyable weather, but the wind has always been a little too cold for us to venture on an open carriage. Our attempt to hear the service at the Russian church was a failure, owing to false information about the time, but we were consoled by the delight Johnnie had in La Sainte Chapelle, which, wonderful to say, he did not know of before. Then we have spent one happy morning in the Louvre and another in the Mus'e9e du Luxembourg. But we are like two children in our fondness for the avenues of the Champs Elys'e9es and we have ended most of our afternoons by a walk to or from the Arc de l''c9toile looking at our fellow mortals who seem, like ourselves, immensely improvable, that is, leaving much to be desired, and at the chesnuts crowded with blossoms which no missionary could make fitter for the millennium than they are at this moment.
What most comforted Johnnie this morning was a letter from Albert, about the Chelsea business. His usual exclamation over anything from Albert is, that this brother-in-law is the most satisfactory of men!
I hope we are not wrong in gathering from your letter that the brooch is safe, but we had no word from Brett on the subject. I do trust Johnnie with the keys, he being the less absent-minded idiot of the two. I feel many little lacks and mistakes in my equipment, owing to hurry. For example I have nothing comfortable to write on, and my pen is like a needle point. But my miseries are all of this minute sort. I feel wonderfully strong and do a great deal of standing and walking without disagreeable effect.
We shall hope to hear that the Ranby measles have gone off mildly, in which case it will have been a good thing to have got the inevitable evil done with while the patients are little ones. Please keep us well informed about the house-hunting, and do not be too easily satisfied. We are to start tomorrow morning, you know, so that we might inquire on 'abFriday'bb Saturday at the Poste Restante Lyons, or on the following day (Sunday) at Avignon. Perhaps Avignon will be the only available place for you to send anything to. It is likely that we shall stay there more than one day. The sun is shining gloriously and Johnnie seems ready to go out. So I will leave everything else unsaid. The [everything else] means a thousand thoughts in common between him and me, about you, dear ones, and all the sweet life we hope to share with you.
Much love to those next door -- to Henry for his goodness in sending the welcome budget with his note.
Your loving
Sister.
Signature
Sister.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mary Finlay Cross, Paris, 13 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/92945