SÉGUR Sophie Rostopchine, Countess of Saint Petersburg,... Lot 56

SÉGUR Sophie Rostopchine, Countess of [Saint Petersburg, 1799 - Paris, 1874], French writer. Autograph letter [addressed to Elisabeth Fresneau]. "Les Nouettes 1867 August 28"; 4 pages in-8° on paper with her embossed figure. "My dear little Elisabeth, here you are finally in full possession of your Pierre; he will have told you in detail the two performances they gave at Les Nouettes. They played very well; Madeleine looked sinister with her big beard and white wig; draped in a black shal with white ornaments she looked like a huge mortician; she acquitted herself very well. I think you are playing charades now that we are back early and the evenings are long; here Louis plays pool from 8 to 9 after the little ones go to bed. Jacques and Jeanne increased the band for two days, after which they went to Livet to take up their yoke. [Your aunt Cécile is well; she went yesterday with your aunt Nathalie to Laigle to look for letters which she was impatiently waiting for and which they brought back; Camille wrote the one of 10 to 12 pages which I am sending you. Louis is as wise as a saint; he has been working with admirable zest since he returned from Kermadio; today he is doing his Thursday at Livet, to the great joy of Jacques and Jeanne []. Tomorrow I am starting a book on the danger of gossip, of the gossip that is so often made in families and in the world and that does so much harm. I have very beautiful models, types of gossip, in my Russian memories; Nathalie Rostopchine will shine in the first rank under a false name of course. I hope to have it well advanced by the time your cousins return and to be rid of it by the end of October, at which time I will begin to prepare my final departure from Les Nouettes and the sale of my farm furniture. [Farewell my dear little darling, I kiss you very tenderly as well as Mom, Dad, all the children, your uncle Anatole and Miss Heyberger. Best wishes to Leonore. Elisabeth Fresneau [1851-1944], daughter of Viscount Armand Fresneau and Henriette de Ségur. She was the third grandchild of the Comtesse de Ségur. Nicknamed "la grosse Lilise", she is a child who is said to be "enormous but very intelligent". She appears in Les Malheurs de Sophie under the name of Elisabeth Chéneau.