© Copyright 2001 R. G. Harrison Letter 487 Arles, 12 May 1888
My dear Theo,
I am writing a line again to tell you that I have been to see the gentleman whom the Arab Jew in Tartarin calls “le Zouge de paix.�p style="line-height:25px;text-indent:32px"> Anyway, I have got 12 francs back, and the innkeeper was reprimanded for keeping back my luggage,
seeing that he had no right to keep it when I did not refuse to pay. If he had won his case, it would have been harmful to me, for he would not have failed to tell everyone that I could not or would not pay, and that he had been obliged to keep my trunk. Whereas now �for I left at the same time as he did �he said in the street that he had lost his temper, but that he had not meant to insult me.
I think myself that this was probably just what he was trying to do, and seeing that I had had enough of his joint and that he could not force me to stay, he would have tried to blacken my reputation here. So that’s that. If I had wanted to get what is probably the fair reduction, I ought to have claimed more, for instance for damages. If I let myself be had by the first comer here, you can imagine that soon I should not know where to turn. I have found a better restaurant where I can get a meal for 1 franc.
I am in better health now.
Just now I have done two new studies like these [F 408, JH 1417; F 409, JH 1416]: you have a drawing of one of them already, a farm by the high road among cornfields [F 1415, JH 1408].
A meadow full of very yellow buttercups, a ditch with irises, green leaves and purple flowers, the town in the background, some gray willows �a strip of blue sky.
If the meadow does not get mowed, I’d like to do this study again, for the subject was very beautiful, and I had some trouble getting the composition. A little town surrounded by fields all covered with yellow and purple flowers; exactly �can’t you see it? �like a Japanese dream.
I asked the cost of carriage for the things I sent, which have gone by goods train, and it will be 7 francs to the station in Paris. As I haven’t much left, I did not pay in advance here, but if they ask more you must protest; the case is marked VV&W. 1042.
Yesterday and today we have had mistral again. I hope that what I have sent will arrive before Tersteeg comes to Paris.
With a handshake, write soon.
Ever yours, Vincent