By mid-1896, all of Satie's financial means had vanished, and he had to move to cheaper and much smaller lodgings, first at the , and two years later, after he had composed the two first sets of "" in 1897, to Arcueil, a suburb some ten kilometres from Montmartre. During this period he re-established contact with his brother Conrad for numerous practical and financial matters, disclosing some of his inner feelings in the process. The letters to Conrad made it clear that he had set aside his religious ideas.