Les Liaisons dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons) Part 1, Letters 46-50 Summary

Letter 46: The Chevalier Danceny to Cécile de Volanges

Apparently Cécile has been acting distant from Danceny because he's having a fit, scolding her for giving him the cold shoulder.
There's probably a good reason, but Danceny is too volatile and too impatient to wait and see what's going on.
Can't she see how much he suffers? She's torturing him!

Valmont spends an evening with his friend Émilie, a courtesan.
Émilie had promised to sleep with another guy, but they got him drunk and sent him off in a carriage.
Now Valmont has her all to himself for the night.
He tells her about his plot to seduce Tourvel, even using her body as a desk on which to write a letter to her.
He's sending the letter to the Marquise so she can mail it to Tourvel postmarked Paris.
On second thought, he decides to come and visit the Marquise and join her in visiting Madame de Volanges, his sworn enemy.

Valmont writes to the Présidente about his love.
In the floweriest language imaginable, he goes on about his joys and suffering, how the air he breathes is ecstasy thinking about his love.
But he's tormented because he can't convince her of his sincerity.
He begs for a reply to his letter.

Seems Cécile is having second thoughts.
She confesses her love, but says she can't act on it and shouldn't be writing to Danceny anymore.
She's asked God to help her forget him.
If he writes her again, she'll have to tell her mother.
If she could love anyone, it would be him, but that's all she can say.

Tourvel reprimands Valmont for breaking his promise to send her only friendly letters.
She shouldn't, as a married woman, be receiving passionate letters from a man who isn't her husband.
Why would Valmont want to make himself miserable by continuing this kind of correspondence? He has access to plenty of other women that could make him happier than someone like her.
So just cool it, already.