Guy de MAUPASSANT. L.A.S. to a friend [Paul Hervieu]; half page in-8 on paper with rich Japanese colored decoration. Curious letter preparing a hoax. "Not knowing Gavarry's address, I beg you to warn him that on Friday he will be M. le Comte de Gavarry, heir to five hundred thousand francs of income. I want to panic Hélène. Excuse this strange paper. I am in the home of a lady who is not very simple, who has no other... [Maupassant set up this hoax with his two friends Eugène Gavarry and Paul Hervieu, to a "gallant" friend named Hélène, who was very credulous. They organized a dinner party to introduce her to a supposedly wealthy Italian count, She fell for it and Maupassant laughed so hard that they thought he was going to have a stroke].