I slept in my aunt's room, the pavilion sickness having seized me again; I shed very bitter tears. I do not go out in the morning because I have no light dress. In the morning it is still quite warm, and my white dress is being cleaned. I am very attached to it and hope to have it back fresh.

We had gone, all four of us, to the music, but on the way we met Orgesko, who was coming back from our house, and Maman and my aunt turned back to show him the villa (I am in my grey dress and black hat). So we were left alone, Dina and I. [Crossed out: several] Twice we passed the public garden, but I did not have the courage to stop, so wretched it still is. The third time we stopped to admire the prefect's wife, the madman, and Audiffret.

The last was walking ceaselessly before our carriage and showing off. But he is a nice young man; he is much improved of late. Such are these little people of Nice — Arson, Audiffret, and even the notary's clerk Desforges are nice and not repulsive. Audiffret is the best among them; he ennobles himself with all his might, and I can say he succeeds and does well. Moreover his liaison with a first-class woman of her kind has formed him.

Maman after dinner was seized with a terrible headache, which obliged her to lie down, and then she suffered horribly, cried and wept. I stood beside her, and [Crossed out: despite] my face, despite my constant study of showing nothing when she has such a great tendency to show everything, expressed several times pity, fear, and anxiety. [Crossed out: I caught myself twice having a] I felt twice that my face was anxious and my eyes frightened and fixed with a profound pity on my poor mother, who rolled on the floor, so much did she suffer. But I composed myself immediately, and when there was someone in the room or Maman looked at me, nothing at all could be read on my face.

For this they call me unfeeling, selfish, et cetera. It wounds me, but I prefer these wounds dealt by the ignorant to leaving my face free as my aunt and Dina do. My aunt even exaggerates — she lets her lower lip hang, furrows her brow, makes her eyes bulge more than necessary, and shrieks and runs about and plays the nurse with officiousness, ceremony, and a little knowing air that sometimes exasperates me. When they asked me how Maman was, I said she was well, that it was only a headache. At ten o'clock I was already in my room when I heard below the cries of Georges and Papa. I did not go down until I had [Crossed out: thought] waited a few minutes and considered what it was. I was not mistaken. Georges, having been told that Maman was ill by Fortune, who was sent and who, in his manner, came all out of breath, and with great wide eyes burst in upon Papa weeping and crying — Papa, believing that before coming to him he had seen some horror in the house, began to shout and howl.

Then I go down, [Crossed out: the] calm and majestic: "What is it? What is this outcry?" Seeing me so calm, Georges calls me unfeeling, cruel, and leaves saying that we will kill Maman.

I go back with him and stay a while longer with Maman, who is better.