Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Thursday, 19 February 1874

Worth has sent me the white dress -- very pretty. I take it to Simone's to be altered (blue dress and hat, good). Dina and I meet Maman, my aunt, and Mme Anitchkoff on the quay on foot; they are going abroad. We are only the two of us, Dina and I. I order at Visconti's Les Femmes celebres by Sainte-Beuve and La Femme by Larcher. Today we met Lambertye and Audiffret at least five times. But above all Lambertye -- on the Promenade twice; we go to the London House, he is right there; we return -- him again, and again and again, and in the end I wanted to laugh. Above all, he has curled his hair -- or he has a wig -- and he reminds me of those advertisements for hair loss treatments. But at dinner we laugh still more: it seems he went to strike up conversation with Papa in the little garden. He began by asking him whether we occupy the whole of the Villa Baquis, whether it is to our house that this very stout lady comes, and whether it is true she divorced her husband. Upon which an old French count, a friend of Papa's, came to talk politics and Lambertye was abandoned. Papa described the count so drolly -- curled like Bijou (as he is today), very perfumed when he drew out his handkerchief, etc.
etc. The whole time we laughed and joked quite properly about the princess and the count. She knows him well by sight, for he passes, they say, often through our garden.
Paul had two bottles of sparkling kvass brought from the London House, which, uncorked, shot up to the ceiling and sprayed everyone. In the evening we play roulette; I played for high stakes, and when I forgot to play, they played for me, knowing my numbers. I love gambling; I shall gamble. That's all I'll say.