My Beloved Toto: Letters from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo 1833-1882

1860s

1860s 165 Letter 131 Guernsey, 25 April 1860 Friday morning, 8 o’clock Good morning, my all-beloved, good morning! My soul greets you in the name of God and of our love. Did you sleep well, my dear little man? Your little Cosette didn’t make too much noise in your head during the night?1 I didn’t actually dream about her, but I think about her all the time with thrills of tenderness and joy, as though waiting for a real little girl from whom we’ve been unwillingly separated for twelve years. I’m eager to see the little girl again and to learn the fate of her beautiful doll. I’m impatient to know whether this monster Javert has lost trace of the poor sublime rascal Monsieur le Maire and to know whether the poor dwelling on the boulevard Mont-Parnasse has been illuminated by a ray of well-being and happiness since I left it.a In short, my poor beloved, I long to renew my acquaintance with all these creations of your genius, whose sadnesses make me suffer and cry more than my own and whose joys are my celebrations and my rays of light. I’m going to do all my chores quickly in order to leave the room free for you. In the meantime I’m delivering you a ton of kisses and caresses, carriage paid. And I also adore you. Juliette Letter 132 Jersey, 13 June 1860 Wednesday morning, half past 6:00 Good morning, my dear beloved! Let me wish you from afar1 a “good morning” even more tender and sweet than if I were close, so as to trick distance of its sadness and gloominess for two beings who love each other as we love. In two hours you’ll be in the packet boat and will be swaying on the same waves as I was yesterday evening. If your eyes gaze upon them and if your thoughts plunge into them as you think of me, you’ll find there all the tenderness and kisses my heart and soul dropped there during the crossing yesterday. I hope that nothing will prevent you from arriving in good health, for the weather which was bad last night appears to be very good this morning. I hope the influence of the thirteenth will not be felt by any one of you and that you will all arrive with a voracious appetite. As for me I’m waiting for your arrival to regain my appetite, which until now has completely failed me, although I was served a very substantial dinner yesterday. I could have decided to go and dine with Ch. Asplet2 this 166 My Beloved Toto morning. But it would be impossible for me to enjoy anything without you, no matter what the pretext and with whomever it might be. The only way for me to bear your absence courageously is to remain all alone with your memory, and to love you with a magnetic fixity which brings my soul closer to yours. Take care on the boat, my dear beloved, and may God bless your crossing! Juliette Letter 133 Jersey, 14 June 1860 Thursday afternoon, 2 o’clock Finally! Finally! Finally!a You have arrived, my great, my ineffable, my divine beloved! I have got back your sweet glance and your victorious smile, and I have heard your dear voice, the enchantment of my soul—what happiness —although I barely saw you! But I know that you’re close to me; I’m sure that you’re well and I hope that you love me. I’m happy, happy, happy! I hope you weren’t vexed that Mme Duverdier and I took this little boat with the intention of meeting you sooner and arrived on the wrong quay, to which we had been directed by mistake?b I was extremely astonished when I saw you in a boat with your Victor heading toward me, while everybody else was waiting for you on the other quay. I felt you had something constrained and displeased about you when you met me, which I don’t deserve either by intention or deed, since for the last two days I’ve done nothing except walk the path from my house to the jetty and from the jetty to my house, without even going into town to buy myself a toothbrush, which...