Marcel PROUST (1871-1922) L.A.S. "Marcel", [February 13, 1912], to Mme Charles NATHAN, 5 rue Greffulhe; 4 pages in-8, envelope. Friendly letter, about his insomnia and medication. [Mme Charles Nathan, née Laure Rodrigues-Ely, was a distant relative of Mme Proust, with whom she was very close]. "I didn't write to you because I was sure I was going to see you. And see how everything turns against me. Being too bored after you and your lovely husband, I resolved instead of taking my milk to take a medicine (Veronal) which I didn't know about and which I was told would make me sleep and put me in a position to go in the afternoon to see the people I so much wanted to see. We went to buy it last night at midnight. I took it at once. My kidneys probably can't take it any more, because not only did it not make me sleep, but an hour later I had a seizure that kept me awake. It seems to be calming down at the moment (three o'clock in the afternoon). But feeling that getting up would be impossible, I send you this little note of tenderness and remembrance in anticipation of the next visit I will make to you, the possibility of which I will ask of something other than the scratched veronal of my papers. Tender kisses on your four beloved cheeks"... He adds that he was "deeply saddened by Madame Crémieux's death".