THE PRISONEREuphrasie a thousand francs to set up a home. It must have been
shortly afterwards that he wrote the undated letter in which he
treated their forthcoming marriage as definite and, most signifi
cant, went so far as to use her Christian name:
‘M y dear Euphrasie,
Y ou must realise that what I charge you to buy is not destined
for anyone but you. I beg you therefore to choose accordingly;
since I am a prisoner and am condemned to be modest, you can
go as far as 50 or 60 francs. I beg your pardon for charging you
with such a strange commission, but necessity has no law. Besides,
I was resolved, before occupying myself with that question, to
ask you what would give you pleasure. When two people think
o f becoming united, it is the custom for them to make their
acquisitions for the wedding together. I am therefore correct, and
I embrace you,
P.-J. Proudhon.
P. S. I forgot to ask you to use the money which you have in
hand for all the purposes that may be agreeable to you. I do not
want any accounting.’
A few days later he told Guillemin that his ‘future’ was already
gaining a vast pleasure from organising her household. ‘Nothing
embellishes a woman like happiness.’ Euphrasie had been for
tunate enough to find an apartment in Rue de la Fontaine; its
windows faced Proudhon’s room in Sainte-Pelagie, and thus, even
when they were not together on Euphrasie’s daily visits, or on
the weekly days o f parole when Pierre-Joseph was now allowed
to go out o f prison from morning until nightfall, they could still
see each other and communicate by signs.
It was on Proudhon’s second day o f parole, the 31st December,
that they were married. He insisted on a civil ceremony and,
though Euphrasie was a devout Catholic, she seems to have
agreed without demur. Their differences regarding religion con
tinued throughout their married life, and Euphrasie always kept
a crucifix in her room, which greatly scandalised the emancipated
Mme Ackermann. But Proudhon himself, with his ambivalent
attitude towards the sexes, appears to have seen nothing wrong
in this. ‘The woman who prays is sublime,’ he once remarked;
D8