My dear respectable papa, I have read over and over with all the satisfaction in the world the little note you had the thoughtfulness to write me. You have the talent of saying an infinite number of kind things in a very few words. I am extremely flattered that you still have a feeling of friendship toward your little pocket wife who deserves it in every way. She prides herself on it and will feel this way all her life for you. She fully appreciates your kind words and the fact that you want to do justice to the kindness of her heart, which inspires in her only goodwill and irreproachable conduct worthy of her. But my dear and beloved papa, what is the purpose in having good thoughts when it doesn't prevent one from being horribly unhappy? I have been continually so for quite some time because of my excessive sensitivity and for having cherished and loved too much a man who paid me back with ingratitude and forced me to leave him. I could no longer endure the injustice of all the pain he has caused me and has made worse and worse in the most horrible way for an infinitely tender woman who loved her husband with all the passion he knows so well how to inspire. He had sworn to return it in every way, finding me worthy of it at the time he made his vow. I have not changed in any way: my conduct, my behavior, my heart have stayed the same; I still love him and have wanted to live only for him and in order to love him. It is this woman he now hates, whom he offends to the point of sparing nothing to show it to her by doing the worst things a man can imagine to kill me bit by bit since he knows how sensitive I am. Here is how things stand for your unhappy little pocket wife. She has been separated from him for six months. I left him January 20; he preferred to give me up than the cause of my despair. He forced me into it by doing everything he could to humiliate and outrage me in my own country home, where I often had the pleasure of seeing you. He never stops giving in to every imaginable seduction in order to corrupt and poison his heart, to the point where it is infinitely cruel to me. All the devils broke loose to make him lose all sense of humanity. He turns a deaf ear to the cries of pain that tear at my heart; he turns a deaf ear to anything of which decent people try to convince him concerning me, and he avoids them out of pride. I swear to you that I have done nothing to be treated with such cruelty; the only crime I have committed is that of being too sensitive and having reproached him for breaking his promise to love me in return as any decent man would. I have been accused of being jealous; it is possible that I am; it springs from the true feelings of a love based on respect which only makes it stronger. Genuine feeling cannot tolerate all [illegible] the pain of being deprived of all satisfaction and happiness. I can say that the bagatelle which portrays women as jealous has no bearing; it is a small pleasure compared to saying that my husband has for me all the ways of making a woman happy. Yes, he has all the means of a gentleman; he neither deprives me of things that can make my house pleasant nor of all decent pleasures and sweetnesses of life nor of spending his free time with me. Not being able to see, to live with the one you love is a horrible torture. No other misfortune is worse than this, and I am the woman with whom my husband has lived the least, I was always without him from morning to night. I have spent and continue to spend my days and nights moaning and crying tears of blood and at times in a dreadful state of despair. I told him and told myself that I married the man I loved so much; I married to live with and enjoy his company, to be happy with him, and I am the person with whom he has lived the least. Have I deserved to be deprived of him forever, to let you partake of the charms of seduction by corrupt company which is going to use whatever hell can imagine to seduce your heart and drag it into its nets and make me hateful in your eyes? You who are a philosopher, who were born to be good and just, don't you prefer a woman of pure feelings whose affection is true, sincere, and with no other motive than to love you, to cherish you and to prove it to you by anticipating everything you like, leaving nothing to be desired, and saving everything so you will lack nothing? At any rate, my dear good papa, I only worried about his well-being and his fortune to enable him to become independent; this is how I behaved and my whole crime, my dear good friend. I know that true philosophy cannot deny the good conduct of a woman who has fulfilled all her duties and who thinks the way I always have; enlightened and honorable souls cannot calmly tolerate things done to humiliate them. True philosophy does not only consist of putting on paper ways to earn respect and a good reputation, allowing a person to be considered a great man. He must engage in good behavior in all things but unfortunately, one only sees the outside because of the powder thrown in our eyes, which is why most men are far from delicate about the rest. Hence the proverb: “a good name is worth more than great wealth.” This is where I have ended up; everything I feel makes me hate life.
You compliment me, my dear good papa, on my courage in having flown in a balloon. Alas, it only made me regret not being able to go far away for if this carriage could have taken me to you, I would have been in heaven and would have stayed there, my dear papa, and would have demonstrated all the respect and esteem you have indelibly engraved in my heart. I am delighted that you are feeling well; I sincerely wish you a long life in perfect health. Great men should be immortal for the good of humanity and the world of which you are the glory. I am very grateful for all the happiness you wish for me; alas, there is no longer any for me; I have lost everything; I no longer have a husband; he no longer lives for me. Those who should not have him are enjoying his company. He has abandoned all honor; true feeling is now nothing to him; he only loves what has made me miserable. Farewell, my dear friend; I assure you that as long as there is a breath in my body, your little pocket wife will love you; she embraces you with all her heart.