Monday, 6 June 1881 – 25 May

Tony is saved! I am delighted. Rosalie dissolves in tears saying that if he had died it would have made me ill — somewhat exaggerated, but still, she is a good girl.
At the same time as the telegram, a letter arrives from Julian bearing the good news.
Here is what Zola says of Jules Vallès... A sensitivity hidden as though it were something ridiculous, a brutality often deliberate, and above all a passion for life, for the human swarm — there you have his whole nature; with that, very cheerful, “chaffing” at once, perhaps for fear of being chaffed, hiding his tears under a ferocious irony. I think that is like me. But one looks foolish appraising oneself like that.