Yesterday, for example, I went to the Pere Lachaise cemetery
which is the largest (106 acres) and most fashionable cemetery in
Paris, its 90,148 (est.) tombs forming a veritable open-air
sculpture gallery. And what do you think I found there which made
me think of you more than ever? Not the tombs of La Fontaine (d.
1695) and Moliere (d. 1673) whose remains, transferred to this
cemetery in 1804, constituted the first interments--not the last
resting place of Rosa Bonheur (d. 1899) or the victims of the
Op
Abelard and Heloise, those late 11th early 12th century lovers,
and you may well imagine what thoughts, centering upon a young
lady whose first name begins with E, filled my heart as I gazed
at this impressive tomb, the canopy of which is composed of
sculptured fragments collected by Lenoir from the Abbey of
Nogent-sur-Seine (Aube).
Edith dearest, I am sitting in my room gazing first at your dear
picture and then out of my window at the Eiffel Tower which is
the tallest structure in the world, being 984 feet high
(Woolworth Building 750 feet, Washington Obelisk 555 feet, Great
Pyramid 450 feet). And although it may sound too romantic, yet it
seems to me, dearest, that our love is as strong and as sturdy as
this masterpiece of engineering construction which weighs 7,000
tons, being composed of 12,000 pieces of metal fastened by
2,500,000 iron rivets.
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