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'We reached his room about eleven. To do what? Not a blessed thing but to sit before a fire and talk and read again.... On his shelf was ... Edmund Rostand's [italics] Cyrano de Bergerac [end italics] in the original French. I started to read the famous speech on his nose. My good friend went ahead with me line for line without the book. Then he in turn read the "Non merci" speech with immense gusto.'
'Thanks for Cyrano. I haven't read it yet but will do so before the sun rises again.' [A week later Conrad wrote: 'Je ne suis bon qu'à lire Cyrano and such like coglionerie']