PROUST (Marcel). Autograph letter signed "Marcel" to Clément de Maugny. [Paris, May 29 or 30, 1922]. 9 pp. in-12 square, about 3 pp. in Céleste Albaret's hand and about 6 pp. in the writer's hand. "[In Céleste Albaret's hand:] My dear Clément, I didn't answer your letter, much more I had [not] read it right away. Here's why. As tiles never fall one without the other, I took pure, at about the time you wrote to me, a medicine which I didn't know could only be taken very diluted. I WAS ALSO TAKEN IMMEDIATELY BY AFFRAUS SUFFERING, to the point of fainting from pain. The next few days, they wanted to put a cast on my stomach, but then they gave up, but I had several weeks of high fever, with great difficulty turning over in bed. Needless to say, I HAD TO INTERRUPT THE SHIPPING OF MY BOOK. I haven't fully read my mail, but I have read your letter with attention and sorrow. With all the reserve I am obliged to take in my expressions since I am dictating this word, I will tell you briefly that I immediately made the approach you asked me to make to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on your protégé's behalf, but the most precise details were given to me about the desire in high places to reduce salaries before the end of the financial year and to abolish old posts instead of creating new ones. A friend of mine, who is very influen[t] there, suggests that I write to our consul in Geneva so that he can find your protégé a small job in Geneva. [In Marcel Proust's handwriting:] My dear Clément, here I take up the pen and cease my dictation, for this fiction of "your protégé" that I had adopted with my maid (not to say that it was you) makes writing too difficult. So an offer for our consul. I neither accepted nor refused, before consulting you, because as no one here knows that you're a mayor, perhaps this job in Geneva would be detrimental to you? To meet the most pressing needs, I'm sending you a money order for 400 francs. But I advise you not to delay any longer in doing what I advised you to do a long time ago. WRITE TO MATHIEU DE NOAILLES WHOSE WIFE [ANNA DE NOAILLES] MORE OR LESS KNOWS THE LEADERS OF THE SOCIETE DES NATIONS, AND WHO HAS GREAT PRESTIGE WITH THEM. For Mathieu de Noailles, you are me, so a letter from you will benefit from the good feelings they may have for me. But it will make a better impression if you write it, and in addition to all the reasons I've already given you for this, there's another, which is that I, WHO HABITUALLY DON'T SEND MY BOOKS (I DON'T KNOW WHY, BECAUSE I LOVE HER INFINITELY) TO MADAME DE NOAILLES, SENT HER THE LAST one, the day before my accident. If I'm the one writing to her for you, she might think that's why I sent her my book. Besides, it's not her but your old friend Mathieu that you should be writing to (I'd advise you not to blame me, but if you do, tell me so I don't make any blunders)... As for continuing to wait for the exchanges to change, that would be crazy, as I told you last year. Nobody can predict anything on this subject; if they recover, so much the better, but act without counting on this miracle because otherwise you'll be selling all your stocks one by one at a low price, you'll be eating all your wheat. I beg your pardon for speaking so frankly, but I SEE SO WELL FOR MYSELF THE TERRIBLE DIFFICULTIES OF CURRENT LIFE, MY SUCCESS (?) HAVING BEGUN ONLY AT A TIME WHEN PUBLISHERS WERE NO LONGER PAYING, and mercantilists renting out homes, for anyone who, like me, has done the folly of moving, ten times their true value. Excuse the rambling of this word, but for the past month I've only been able to have ice cream, which we fetch from the devil, and which is a dish more expensive than nourishing. So it took a letter from my dear Clément - a letter that plunged a dagger into my heart - for me to write..." MARCEL PROUST'S YOUTH FRIEND AND ONE OF THE INSPIRATIONS OF THE RESEARCH, LE COMTE DE MAUGNY (1873-1944) received the writer several times between 1893 and 1905 at his Château de Maugny on the shores of Lake Geneva, and remained in epistolary contact with him until his death. Marcel Proust transposed the memories of these stays into his Recherche. Clément de Maugny had also married a Polish aristocrat, Rita Busse, who published a collection of his drawings in 1919, with a letter from Marcel Proust as a preface. GOUVERNANTE DE MARCEL PROUST, TEMOIN PRIVILEGIE DE SA VIE, ET UN DES MODELES DE LA CUISINIERE FRANÇOISE DANS LA RECHERCHE, CELESTE ALBARET (1891-1984) de