Sunday, 19 July 1874

We leave and all the men stay with Basilevitch. I return in a mood easy to guess.
Later I saw from my window Basilevitch, her husband, and his friend returning.
Maman said that Gericke has not left because she promised him a rendezvous after de Tanlay's departure. It is not I who say it; it is Maman. Winslow was often near me this evening. Why is it not someone else!
Every evening on returning home I think of him, and sometimes I see him. And I compare.
What I should like to say is so vague that I can barely understand it. It is that -- no. I mean that what I feel for him is something extraordinary, something I do not understand. He too is extraordinary. When I think of him for a minute or two -- the duke captivates -- when I see him -- no, it is better to say nothing. I shall never know how to write what I feel, since I can barely gather my thoughts [Crossed out: on this point], untangle them, and always trembling to lose the thread -- the thread I do not hold. Everything in me -- no, it is over! I remember nothing more.