COLETTE is suspected of adultery by her husband Jouvenel.

Sidonie Gabrielle Colette , known as COLETTE (1873.1954)

Autograph letter signed to Philippe Berthelot.

Three pages in-4° on blue paper.

January 29, 1920.

“Prevent a bloody encounter between these two men!” »

Suspected of adultery, Colette faces the despair of her husband, Henry de Jouvenel.

__________________________

“My dear friend, I have come to ask your old friendship to intervene in a very difficult matter. Here it is: this morning they brought me, addressed to my name, on Senate paper, a letter from Jonnart [Senator Célestin Jonnart], which – in cuddly terms, and all imbued with that charm that in literature we call everywhere “the Jonnart charm”, – regretted not having been able to join me for an intimate lunch.

My husband read this letter… Ah! my poor friend, what a scene! Naturally I cried out my innocence, and with accents that only can spring from the heart of an innocent woman! In vain: doubt entered Sidi. A terrible suspicion ruins my present, poisons my past. “Jonnart, Jonnart…” murmurs the unfortunate man who is nothing more than a shadow of himself.

Have I not surprised him – see how far his madness and my misfortune go! – did I not surprise him, in the livid dawn, (* Eleven o'clock in the morning, but lyricism above all) leaning over two portraits: that of Jonnart and that of his daughter! He was looking – ah! the fool! – between these two faces of such different beauty, I don’t know what fatal resemblance…

This is where I am, dear friend. You who have known me for _ years, you who know into what painful grief the death of Clémenceau has thrown me, try to convince Sidi! Prevent a bloody encounter between these two men! I appeal to your kindness and I embrace you while bathing you in tears. Colette, alas, from Jouvenel. »