ce on peut avoir le premier amant:
Pompadour en est Tepreuve.'

I have read the memoir of his three escapes. As to myself, my health is
good, except my wrist, which mends slowly, and my mind, which mends not
at all, but broods constantly over your departure. The lateness of
the season obliges me to decline my journey into the south of France.
Present me in the most friendly terms to Mr. Cosway, and receive me into
your own recollection with a partiality and warmth, proportioned not
to my own poor merit, but to the sentiments of sincere affection and
esteem, with which I have the honor to be, my Dear Madam,

Your most obedient, humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER XXIX.--TO MRS. COSWAY, October 13, 1786

TO MRS. COSWAY.

Paris, October 13, 1786.

My Dear Madam,

Just as I had sealed the enclosed, I received a letter of a good length,
dated Antwerp, with your name at the bottom. I prepared myself for a
feast. I read two or three sentences: looked again at the signature, to
see if I had not mistaken it. It was visibly yours. Read a sentence or
two more. Diable! Spelt your name distinctly. There was not a letter of
it omitted. Began to read again. In fine, after reading a little, and
examining the signature alternately, half a dozen times, I found that
your name was to four lines only, instead of four pages. I thank you
for the four lines, however, because they prove you think of me; little,
indeed, but better little than none. To show how much I think of you, I
send you the enclosed letter of three sheets of paper, being a history
of the evening I parted with you. But how expect you should read a
letter of three mortal sheets of paper? I will tell you. Divide it into
six doses of half a sheet each, and every day, when the toilette begins,
take a dose, that is to say, read half a sheet. By this means, it
will have the only merit its length and dulness can aspire to, that of
assisting your coiffeuse to procure you six good naps of sleep. I will
even allow you twelve days to get through it, holding you rigorously to
one condition only, that is, that at whatever hour you receive this, you
do not break the seal of the enclosed till the next toilette. Of this
injunction I require a sacred execution. I rest it on your friendship,
and that in your first letter, you tell me honestly, whether you have
honestly performed it. I send you the song I promised. Bring me in
return the subject, _Jours heureux!_ Wer