page 171

I have chosen to-day to write because Manoukhin has come a great deal nearer. He has told me that if I go to Paris he will treat me by his new method and there is the word guérison shining in his letter. I believe every word of it; I believe in him implicitly. As soon as I am out of bed (the cold has been too cold) Jones will pack the boxes and I shall go to see him and arrange to return to town in May. I want to spend the winter here. But in May I shall go to Paris for the course of treatment which takes 15 weeks. (Manoukhin is not only a doctor. He is a whole new stage on the journey. I hardly know why.) His treatment consists of applications of the Rayons X.

One word I must say about Joyce. Having re-read The Portrait it seems to me on the whole awfully good. We are going to buy Ulysses. But Joyce is (if only P. didn't think so, too) immensely important. Some time ago I found something so repellent in his work that it was difficult to read it. It shocks me to come upon words, expressions and so on that I'd shrink from in life. But now it seems to me the seeking after Truth is so by far and away the most important thing that one must conquer all minor aversions. They are unworthy.