Mme Proust and the Kosher Kitchen by Kate Taylor Page A

young servant in his presence and he still in his pyjamas and then appalled at the sight of the open window. His breathing became instantly laboured, he got right back into bed and sent the maid off to find me. I hurried up from breakfast and there he was in the throes of a ferocious attack.It is all so stupid. The sea air is supposed to do him good and here he is suffering from his asthma as badly as if we were in Auteuil. I had to go around the hotel with the manager, inspecting other rooms in the hopes of finding one that had not recently been aired, and did finally find an awfully small one up on the fourth floor that seemed all right.
    I looked in on him just now and he was fast asleep, with that regular breathing, the sound of which floods me with relief after any attack, but which most of us take for granted every day. I wonder if there has been a month of that child’s life when I have not worried. It is a mother’s job in the end. I am not sure how I would fill my days if I did not have Marcel and Dick to care for.
    It was Ruskin who told us: “Give a little love to a child and you get a great deal back.”
TROUVILLE . H ôTEL DES R OCHES N OIRES . T HURSDAY , S EPTEMBER 14, 1893
    Marcel and his father have reprised their correspondence on the career question with a long letter from Adrien about the Cour des Comptes if Marcel does not wish to pursue law. I have told Marcel that his father and I wish him only to be happy and that there is no dishonour in keeping France’s account books for her, but I cannot help but secretly agree with him when he says such employment would not suit him. His father, however, is much taken with the idea and seems to have been seeking advice all over Paris.
    I had a drive with M. and Mme Faure yesterdayafternoon, followed by tea on the veranda. She has recently discovered Dickens so we had a long talk about his books. Mme Faure says her favourite so far is
The Old Curiosity Shop
, which I always found a little sentimental but clearly reflects the lady’s tender sensibilities. She demanded I pronounce a favourite, and without really giving the matter much thought, I said
Great Expectations
, just because the idea of the jilted Miss Havesham still sitting in her wedding dress after so many years is such a wonderful image of lost love. Mme Faure said she would get to it next so we might discuss it too, but warned me it might be some time as all Dickens’s novels are so very long. She is right, although I never mind a long novel myself as long as the author has a strong moral.
TROUVILLE . H ôTEL DES R OCHES N OIRES . W EDNESDAY , S EPTEMBER 20, 1893.
    Adrien seems to have abandoned the idea of the Cour des Comptes and I think it is best left forgotten. I will not ask why he has changed his mind, better just to let the whole thing drop. Instead, he and Marcel are now arguing about the law and the possibility of the Ecole des Chartes. Marcel had received a reply from Monsieur Grandjean about that—three years of study to become an archivist, but the Ecole du Louvre is only two years. He is very worried that a museum job really would leave him no time to write, which seems once again to be his foremost concern. I suggested he write again to M. Grandjean and discreetly inquire how many days a week the keepers are expected to attend the museum.
    I really cannot bear the idea of the alternative, which will have to be diplomacy, but there may be nothing for it. I cannot tell Adrien how much I dread the idea, for he would criticize me for being too soft on the boy and I cannot tell Marcel for fear of discouraging him from any path that might be open to him. All I can do at the moment is advise him to give the Ecole du Louvre serious consideration. What a privilege it would be, after all, to dwell every day amongst the beauties of the museum.
    I am reminded of a truthful phrase of George Eliot’s—there is something in
Middlemarch
about youth being the season of hope only because our elders