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Thursday, 14 January 1875
Thursday we go to Ferry's, then to Laferrière's — where I enter not without a certain trepidation, but Caroline is tolerable, and I order three dresses and a coat: a simple grey day dress, one in white wool with white laces and olive-shaped buttons, and one in white silk and barège embroidered in Parma violet. And a cape with a black muff trimmed with skunks1.All these things please me and I leave enchanted. Then to de Vertus: a white satin corset. And finally to Reboux: a grey hat and felt with feathers — soft and graceful. Then to Duval's — with this last there will be some difficulty, I suspect, for when the furniture was ordered he said my aunt could pay as she liked, and she assumed the payment would be arranged as Schmit had proposed: that is, spread over several years, as Princess Suvorov pays.
Toutes ces choses me plaisent et je m'en vais enchantee puis chez de Vertus, un corset satin blanc et enfin chez Reboux, chapeau gris et feutre a plumes, mou et gracieux...
My aunt assumed this, but was wrong not to say so to Duval — who, moreover, every time she spoke to him about paying, said it would be as she wished, that it was for her to choose the terms and he would do whatever she wanted.
Ma tante a pense cela, mais elle a eu tort de ne pas le dire a Duval qui, d'ailleurs, chaque fois qu'elle lui parlait de payer disait que c'est comme elle voudra...
A rather shady way of answering.
Maniere assez louche de repondre.
Now M. Duval says that he did not have a delay of several years in mind — he understood he would be paid in the course of the year.
Maintenant M. Duval dit qu'il n'a pas pense a un delai de quelques annees mais qu'il a compris etre paye dans le courant de l'annee.
There is the situation.
Voila l'affaire.
My God — if only this does not cause great unpleasantness.
Mon Dieu, pourvu que cela ne cause de grands desagrements.
Notes
In English in the original. Skunk fur was fashionable trim in the 1870s. ↩