Sunday, July 9, 2017

John Hay to Albert Rhodes: September 7, 1865

Paris, Sept. 7, 1865.
MY DEAR RHODES:

I have just received your lively letter of the last of August from which I infer that the agony of tearing yourself loose from your adored Paris has been met in a heroic spirit and survived. “Parigi O cara” is very hot and nasty now. “All in a hot and copper sky. The bloody sun at noon blisters and broils the asphalt pave as hot as Hell in June,” as our mutual friend the Ancient Mariner says. I feel deep sympathy for fat women at this season. They pay a heavy tax for your admiration.

Your anxiety in regard to Mr. P—— I am happy to relieve by stating, that he has returned in an astounding state of Teutonic health. He was detained by sickness in Bonn but is now quite well.
I congratulate you on making the acquaintance of Mrs. L——. One of the cleverest women I know. And thoroughly feminine and amiable.

I saw in the street the other day a handsome Spaniard named B——, Secretary of Legation at Stockholm, who asked tidings of you. I said you were in England. He looked polite commiseration and we drifted apart.

SOURCES: Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 255-6

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