Saturday, 10 January 1874

I wake at a quarter past eight with a headache; I dismissed the mathematics teacher. I go out in the carriage with Maman and my aunt, Dina is ill (blue dress, brown hat, good); I stay at Bouchon's until they go I don't know where, for I need a pair of boots while I send the latest ones from Paris as a template to Ferry's. I found a passable pair, but the toe like a spade, to the point that I feel altogether blunt.
We pass along the Promenade, which I have not seen for a long time and which I love. At the Wittgensteins' everything is open. One no longer sees the Centifolia; her protector Audiffret -- her protector miserably copies his predecessor: in the morning at ten or eleven he passes quickly in a carriage much like the Duke's, two horses, towards her, then one sees him around four o'clock passing in the same way to the station or the Cercle. In short, he copies him, and he thinks he can imitate him -- he, a peasant, and such a great lord!...
As we come back up the Promenade I see Prince Wittgenstein at the same spot as the Duke of Hamilton two years ago. I pointed him out but neither Maman nor my aunt had time to see him. His beauty, reclining in an open carriage, ugly and old -- I did not recognize her.
The Duke and Duchess of Hamilton will come to Nice where the yacht "Thistle" will await them.............
Miserere!
I return at four o'clock for M. Brunet.
It is a real misfortune with Paul; he does nothing, he will do nothing, he understands nothing!
Maman, my aunt, Hitchcock, and Paul go to the concert of a M. Franceschi, introduced to Maman by the Comtesse de Mouzay.
Diadia stays with us -- that is, with me, Dina, the princess, and Machenka -- and amuses us with all sorts of tricks, card games, anecdotes, etc. etc.
Weary of everything I go to my room and they go down for tea. It is astonishing how apathetic I have become; I would be capable of sitting down and not moving all day. My greatest pleasure is to stay alone and compose all sorts of stories in my own way; for I represent to myself what has passed and I imagine what may come; I arrange it and I think it. I wish something would interest me, animate me, move me! Ahhh. I am bored............

Notes

In English in the original.