Saturday, 31 October 1874

Unfortunately I do not forget — it calms my anger, but it is a great sin before God.
My aunt and I were passing two beautiful Meissen porcelain vases.
— Let us buy them, I said.
And the money?
Let us go to Monaco and win it.
No sooner said than done: as five o’clock drew near we were at the station, and half an hour later at the casino. On the way I was sorry I had come, but I found that climbing so quickly up the hill from the station to the casino is worth a longer journey. One of my greatest pleasures is to fly instead of drive.
I took a place near beside my aunt and she played for me. I played with what I won and could not do much. Still, I came away with fifty-five francs without having risked a sou.
My aim was not to win for those vases, but rather to make Dina a present, something to brighten up her room.
I saw the terrible Maltese. Nina joined us for a few minutes when we went into the rooms after dinner; she went on to the station, and there we stayed quite a long while, the train being late.

Notes

In English in the original. ↩