Alphonse ALLAIS. L.A.S., Marseille [1895], to Jean Stevens; 2pages in-8 on the letterhead of the Grand Café de la Bourse (edge a little frayed). "I think you're exaggerating a little and that the thing doesn't involve such great airs of the bogeyman, which terrify me very little besides. [...] I told Mademoiselle Catherine Stevens [Jean's sister] how astonished and distressed I had been to learn that she was making disparaging and, in any case, perfectly useless remarks about me and my literary products. Among other things, that I was writing old stories in the Journal that Ponchon had been told more than twenty times (an assertion completely contrary to the truth). Coming from anyone else, these remarks would have left me perfectly cold. I've seen it all! And it's never stopped me from making a decent living. But coming from Mademoiselle Catherine Stevens, I have to admit that the whole thing made my heart ache a little, and I couldn't resist telling her so. Did the words overtake or betray my thoughts? I don't think so, but if they did, I'd be sorry, for Mademoiselle Catherine Stevens is one of the few people for whom I feel the whole range of the best feelings, from the most lively sympathy to the deepest esteem and above all unalterable gratitude for the great happiness I owe her"...