Volume Iii Part 50 (2/2)
You will be glad, I know, to hear that we had a delightful pa.s.sage yesterday, and that I made a perfect phenomenon of a dinner. It is raining hard to-day, and my back feels the draught; but I am otherwise still mending.
I have signed, sealed, and delivered a contract for a house (once occupied for two years by a man I knew in Switzerland), which is not a large one, but stands in the middle of a great garden, with what the landlord calls a ”forest” at the back, and is now surrounded by flowers, vegetables, and all manner of growth. A queer, odd, French place, but extremely well supplied with all table and other conveniences, and strongly recommended.
The address is:
Chateau des Moulineaux, Rue Beaurepaire, Boulogne.
There is a coach-house, stabling for half-a-dozen horses, and I don't know what.
We take possession this afternoon, and I am now laying in a good stock of creature comforts. So no more at present from
Yours ever faithfully.
P.S.--Mrs. d.i.c.kens and her sister unite in kindest regards.
[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.]
CHaTEAU DES MOULINEAUX, BOULOGNE, _Sat.u.r.day Night, June 18th, 1853._
MY DEAR WILLS,
”BLEAK HOUSE.”
Thank G.o.d, I have done half the number with great care, and hope to finish on Thursday or Friday next. O how thankful I feel to be able to have done it, and what a relief to get the number out!
GENERAL MOVEMENTS OF INIMITABLE.
_I don't think_ (I am not sure) I shall come to London until after the completion of ”Bleak House,” No. 18--the number after this now in hand--for it strikes me that I am better here at present. I have picked up in the most extraordinary manner, and I believe you would never suppose to look at me that I had had that week or barely an hour of it.
If there should be any occasion for our meeting in the meantime, a run over here would do you no harm, and we should be delighted to see you at any time. If you suppose this place to be in a street, you are much mistaken. It is in the country, though not more than ten minutes' walk from the post-office, and is the best doll's-house of many rooms, in the prettiest French grounds, in the most charming situation I have ever seen; the best place I have ever lived in abroad, except at Genoa. You can scarcely imagine the beauty of the air in this richly-wooded hill-side. As to comforts in the house, there are all sorts of things, beginning with no end of the coldest water and running through the most beautiful flowers down to English foot-baths and a Parisian liqueur-stand. Your parcel (frantic enclosures and all) arrived quite safely last night. This will leave by steamer to-morrow, Sunday evening.
There is a boat in the morning, but having no one to send to-night I can't reach it, and to-morrow being Sunday it will come to much the same thing.
I think that's all at present.
Ever, my dear Wills, faithfully yours.
[Sidenote: Mr. Frank Stone, A.R.A.]
CHaTEAU DES MOULINEAUX, RUE BEAUREPAIRE, BOULOGNE, _Thursday, June 23rd, 1853._
MY DEAR PUMPION,
I take the earliest opportunity, after finis.h.i.+ng my number--ahem!--to write you a line, and to report myself (thank G.o.d) brown, well, robust, vigorous, open to fight any man in England of my weight, and growing a moustache. Any person of undoubted pluck, in want of a customer, may hear of me at the bar of Bleak House, where my money is down.
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