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Paris, Good Friday March 26/69.

Dear Franny I [[strikethrough]] have [[/strikethrough]] got your letter last Sunday afternoon. I was very anxious about it for I knew you would write to me to tell me about mummy. We are both at work at our schools. Bill is at Yvon's & likes it very much. I was wondering till I got here whether Bill & I would do better to [[strikethrough]] st [[/strikethrough]] take a studio between us or stay [[strikethrough]] with [[/strikethrough]] in Crepon's studio [[strikethrough]] till [[/strikethrough]] at least till Sautar came back from Italy. When we went to see Crepon he received us not over warmly & Bill Sartain especially coldly. Next day I went over there to cover some canvasses & when I got nearly through Crepon said My! how strong that paint smells I'm afraid it will hurt the boy & give him colics. So I took up my canvasses & carried them back to the canvass shop. Next day I told him it was indifferent to us whether we staid with him or took a studio to ourselves, so he thought we had better take one ourselves [[strikethrough]] for [[/strikethrough]] on our account & that of his wife & boy. This was very sensible & just & we are all better pleased than if we had staid together. But there was no occasion for [[strikethrough]] such [[/strikethrough]] any exhibition of coolness & he should have [[strikethrough]] let me speak [[/strikethrough]] had a little patience & let me speak my intentions & wishes before discovering any humor or should have spoken himself. When I took my studio in West St. first I asked him to [[strikethrough]] come in [[/strikethrough]] stay with me for company & he came up for he was living on the ground floor & the water was streaming always down the walls so that the doctor said they would die if they staid there & he & his wife & child all staid in my studio except to sleep & I was very glad to have them there

[Overwritten]] I am sorry to have written you such a mean letter but it is what I happen to be most thinking of. It is very cold & damp yet & possibly that is what set me to thinking of it again. Bill & I both have colds fortunately light ones & the little water I put in my wine or something else gave me a week's belly ache which I am now got rid of.[[/overwritten]]

he had given them away. When I was  first afterwards surprised in comparing any drawings of his wife with his that mine were just as good as his or better & my color sketches too & that I painted a head faster & better. One night in bed the whole deceit flashed across me & it stopped me from sleeping.

Since then it is a year ago I have known Crepon perfectly. He is not bad but weak. I would have told have told you maybe this history before but it would have made you think me more lonely or unhappy than I was, as I had written more of him than of my other friends. There will be no change in our relations to one another. I will be just as cordial as ever & so will he. That is we will be polite & laugh together. The heart must have nothing to do in that word cordial. [[strikethrough]] I was [[/strikethrough]] When you told me your opinion of Crepon from his looks I would not [[strikethrough]] agree with it [[/strikethrough]] let on to agree with you but your penetration astonished me for I had been deceived myself so long. You told me Mrs Crepon was more lady-like than some one of my friends I forget which one. She has a splendid head & health & was a foundation for every noble quality but [[strikethrough]] their [[/strikethrough]] her living with him their petty lies to one another and the like is hurting her very fast. In ten years I am sure [[strikethrough]] yo [[/strikethrough]] none of us would know her. I have drawn her so often I know her face well & it is changing.