Thursday, 21 May 1874

Ah! it would take too long to say how they martyr me!! I am wrong too, no doubt, but that is no reason to eat me, gnaw me, devour me with lamentations and invocations and predictions of every sort of misfortune!!!!!! I am raging; I have let unworthy words escape me, but they will turn me into a devil, a madwoman, a fury!!.!!
This morning, after mass at the deacon's, they stayed -- against my wishes -- eating onions, etc., and left me without lunch. I was already raging. But all these miseries are done with such composure, such naturalness, and such an air of suffering!!!! I do not say I am an angel, that I endure -- no -- but they turn me into a devil!!!!! Then for the walk in the Bois there was a charming prelude. At last in the evening we managed to get a box for "Bagatelle"; after the performance at the theater there was one at the hotel! Oh! they make me pay dearly for these so-called pleasures and wishes!!!
I am going to pray God to forgive me and to save me!!.
[Crossed out: I believe that]
What have I not heard! Reproaches against my race, my name, my father -- just as if it were my fault that my mother married my father! The most wounding and humiliating words, which I shall never forget, which I shall perhaps forgive. Words that make me desire vengeance, that make all my blood boil, that overturn [Crossed out: my mind] my brain, that drive me mad! Whence comes this hatred?!
Despite myself, I believe it is because of a broken existence, continual disappointments, and humiliations. These are mitigating circumstances; moreover, I believe that illness sours the character. Then there is also my fault, but not to such a point. I do not believe myself guilty -- have they not tormented me since my birth?
God commands us to forgive.
Forgive! Can I, my God?! I do not want to be sublime; that would be to be ambitious before God. I do not want to forgive. I cannot, at this moment! And yet this is the true moment; this is what is difficult. I must [Crossed out: convince] conquer myself! I am going to pray!
How feeble is what I have said beside what I was feeling.