Pourville and Osiris's will

After the brief return to Paris the couple continued their ‘elopement’ to Pourville, two miles west of Dieppe where Debussy would be able to pick up his post. They arrived a few days before 11 August, the date of letters to Durand and to Lilly.

Why did they choose Pourville? Debussy did not want to reveal their address there to anyone. They may have stayed initially at the Grand Hôtel du Casino but then they moved on to the villa Mon Coin. Here, just as with Arcachon, there was a link with Emma's uncle, Osiris. On 17 September 1897, nineteen years after Emma's marriage to Sigismond and whilst ‘residing at Arcachon in my Villa Alexandre Dumas’, Osiris had made a codicil to his will with additional executors, who remained the same in the next version in 1898. One of these was Sigismond Bardac, Emma's husband.

Sigismond was not only an executor. It is evident from the terms of the will that he had collaborated with Osiris in speculating in land in Pourville prior to 1896, which probably meant travelling there, perhaps with his wife Emma. At that time Osiris intended to bequeath to the town part of the land he owned together with ‘MM Berger (of the Ottoman Bank), Naville and Bardac’, under certain specific conditions. He wanted a church or Catholic chapel built there, which was to be given the name ‘Léonie’ or ‘Léonie Osiris’ in memory of his wife. The town could dispose of any leftover land as it pleased.

Emma in 1904, with her husband being party to the terms of the will, might have had reason to believe that she would inherit some money, but the sum specified is not nearly as great as one might surmise. Her inheritance had already been affected, presumably because Osiris knew of her affair with Fremiet's son-in-law, Gabriel Fauré, through his dealings and friendship with Emmanuel Fremiet.

Osiris's initial 1896 and 1897 wills stipulated that his sister Laure and his niece Emma were to be buried in his tomb in Montmartre. They were each to choose ten items from his various residences. Emma's financial inheritance depended on whether her mother was still alive. When Laure died, a sum of eight hundred thousand francs was to be shared between Emma's children.