Sarah BERNHARDT. LA.S., [summer 1885], to Raoul Ponchon; 9 pages in-12 with her number and motto. Beautiful and witty letter during a tour in Belgium. She tells him first of all of the pleasure she takes in reading his letters in the morning, after which she gets up all cheerful... "Tonight is the premiere of Theodora [by Sardou] at your good neighbors'. I am already very tired because we rehearsed until two in the morning and rehearsed with a frothy rage. [Tonight I will have supper with Frédérix and Madame Marie Laurent whom I am trying to bring to my hotel because since Marie Julien's departure [...] I am eating alone and that makes me sad. I work on my play, my verses, my short story, everything. I think of you, I adore Jean [Richepin, her lover at the time] and I dream of happiness while waiting for it to come. To dream it is already to have it a little "... She thinks of going to the Wirtz museum, says she has so many "funny ideas in her head for news" that she cannot formulate a single one. Then she talks about her troupe: Léon Marais who "leans his voice on his throat and lets out new phrases for posterity and Brussels inspires him"; Paul Reney "more stupid, more talkative and more liar"; Philippe Garnier "very bad under his round hat"; Marie Laurent who is 15 years old and has "small hats of a child of eight"; Marie Jullien who bought a too narrow costume "and her fat posterior stretches her skirt to make it burst"; finally Léon Jolliet who was absent at the first rehearsal: "I soaped his head in such a way as to leave him no doubt about my love of cleanliness"...