Sulpice-Guillaume Chevalier, known as Paul GAVARNI (1804-1866). 15 L.A., [circa 1833-1834], to Joséphine Junot d'Abrantès 42 pages in-8, 2 addresses "to Madame Junot". A beautiful love letter. Gavarni was introduced to the salon of the Duchess of Abrantès around 1830 by his friend Honoré de Balzac. He quickly became a family friend, and when Joséphine Junot, the duchess's eldest daughter, returned to Paris after several years in a convent to receive the insignia of canoness (which led to her being called "Madame Junot"), Gavarni succumbed to her charm. They soon developed the most intense feelings for each other, the progress and hindrances of which can be seen in the letters we have before us. To justify their growing intimacy in their own eyes, the two decided to consider themselves brother and sister... We can only quote brief extracts here. 30 November 1833. "You, for me, are a mystery of goodness. This name of brother that you give me, this friendship so candid that comes to mine, this trust so complete in me, would you believe it, all this troubles and worries me. For you have made me doubt myself. This doubt is perhaps all the good I have left. If I accepted this brotherly feeling between us without fear, I would deserve it even less". He paints a curious moral portrait of himself: "I must show you my whole self. My sister, I have tired my reason with the things of this world. For a long time now I no longer judge, I watch and leave everything to me and to others. In all the subtleties of reasoning, good and evil have escaped me. If I am not evil, it comes from my heart and not from my mind, because I go without duty and without law. There is only one thing in the world of which I am truly incapable: cowardice. This comes from a pride of heart that nothing has taken away from me. I could think anything, I could want anything; I would never abuse a kindness, take advantage of an abandonment. This is my whole soul. It's pure pride, no doubt. But what does it matter? It's a key I'm giving you to me"... Mme Junot replied and from then on the letters followed one another, although every Monday Gavarni met his "sister" in the salon of the Duchesse d'Abrantès... "O you make me blush! O you make me blush with your praise! I don't deserve it. To find what I do so beautiful, you don't think enough about what the opposite would have been [...] Your soul has such a sweet-smelling flower! Is it really so commendable that you didn't have the brutal idea of plucking it from its stem? And I would have adorned myself with it, all smoky from the orgies of this world"... - Friday morning: "Your letter is a delightful thing. Only you in the world could have written it. Poor angel! No sooner have you come to meddle with love among us than you already have the heart of a natural woman. Humanity suits you as well as heaven. You have a grace and a charm about you that you will bring with you wherever you go. An exquisite perfume that I mistook for Christian faith"... Through her brother Napoléon d'Abrantès, Gavarni's companion for pleasure, Mme Junot knew that the artist continued to go out to balls and cabarets, and reproached him for it: "You are an angel of goodness, and yet you do me a great deal of harm with your letter. Forgive me, forgive me on my knees"... Gavarni learns with displeasure that the world is beginning to gossip about their epistolary relationship. Midnight: "Oh, I beg of you