« Votre conscience me préoccupe. Je m'efforcerai de bien la diriger. »

Autograph letter-card signed by Guy de Maupassant to Countess Potocka, 19 lines in black ink, on letterhead "GM 83, rue Dulong".
Published in Marlo Johnston, "Lettres inédites de Maupassant à la comtesse Potocka", Histoires littéraires, n°40, October-November-December 2009.
Maupassant was part of the circle of suitors of Countess Potocka whom she had nicknamed the "Macchabées". The author was much in social demand and this created scheduling problems for him: "Or, voici le cas [...] Legrand m'avait recommandé de ne pas m'engager [...] à ce dîner en m'annonçant une invitation de sa belle-soeur, invitation qui n'est pas venue." ["Now, here is the case [...] Legrand had recommended that I not commit [...] to this dinner by announcing an invitation from his sister-in-law, an invitation which never came."]
He decides to clear up the doubt by going to his friend Georges Legrand's: "prendre le vent." ["to test the waters."] A close friend of Maupassant's, it was he who introduced him to Countess Potocka. The author would dedicate to him in 1884 the short story Suicide, reprinted in the volume Les Soeurs Rondoli and which had previously been published in the magazine Le Gaulois.
Maupassant seems more anxious about visiting Potocka whom he had nicknamed "présidente" ["president"] and whose "conscience [le] préoccupe. Je m'efforcerai de bien la diriger." ["conscience worries [him]. I shall endeavor to guide it well."] He refers to the creation of the "Société religieuse Coopérative sous la dénomination de Société Anonyme Anti-Soporifique pour la Récréation perpétuelle de la comtesse Potocka" ["Religious Cooperative Society under the name of Anti-Soporific Anonymous Society for the perpetual Recreation of Countess Potocka"], one of the many games that took place during evenings at Countess Potocka's. Before leaving her, he reiterates his admiration: "Je suis aux pieds de ma présidente." ["I am at the feet of my president."]

Provenance: Jean Bonna collection.