Sunday, 16 February 1873

in the marginnote de Marie sur la page de titre du Livre 2
[Annotation: 1880. I ask the Editor to delete, in this book and those that follow, the repetitions about the Duke of Hamilton.]
Fine weather, windy; we went to Rumpelmayer’s for hot chocolate.
To church (blue dress). At lunch Mme Savelieff brought her nephew M. Savelieff as well, who is here with his wife for a week. Then to the concert, a great many people. Boreel with two horses, while we were stopped at the concert, passed us — but not directly in front — he did not go too fast and greeted Maman; I blushed a great deal and asked:
— Why does he greet you, Maman?
— He is a man of good standing, she replied.
He greeted her and that means he does not wish to avoid me; if he wished to, he could perfectly well not greet her, not even having been introduced. Or perhaps he greeted her to see what face I would make at that moment. He passed us slowly several times — he was truly very handsome today! I liked him very much, but one must not show it...
Inserted itemannotation de Marie, 1874
[Annotation: September 1874: Boreel owes his beginning to the resemblance we found between him and Prater.]
Oh! how I wish he would be introduced to us, and if one day he alludes to my being in love with him, I shall tell him that I do not love him, but that having one day found a resemblance between him and my dog, I said this at home several times and was teased about it, and that it is because of this that I blushed upon seeing him. I imagine his astonishment. And then perhaps he will want to make himself loved by me, and he will love me.
I believe the Duke is at Gioia’s because she has not gone out.
in the margin
Too much loving, etc.
Going to bed, I hear Mme de Mouzay and Mme de Daillens arrive; I lead the latter to the small yellow salon, which is dark; I am in my coat and have her tell me about Mme Prodgers’s ball. She tells me in a whisper: I ask about the crowd, then about “fat Boreel.” He was dressed as a Louis XV Pierrot, in a pearl-grey and cherry jacket, very fresh and very fine, she told me; so I said: “Grey and cherry — those are the colours of a jockey... I believe the Duke of Hamilton’s,” and she finished the word Hamilton with me. A few more words on that. We now have staying with us: Mme de Mouzay, Mme de Daillens, M. and Mme Anitchkoff, M. de Patton. Maman went to the theatre but came back quickly.