Monday, March 30:
R. reads Champfleury’s sketch about Balzac and laughs heartily at the latter’s remark about Lamartine: “Il mourra sur la paille. D’ailleurs il ne sait pas le français.” [“He will die on straw. Besides, he does not know French.”] I went to the house in the morning and afternoon.
In the evening R. reads me several bits from Champfleury’s sketch. “They are charming, these French people,” he says. A scene between the writer and a government official about art books makes us laugh heartily. (R. works.)