Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Wednesday, 14 April

(Oh! How pretty I am this evening.)
At four o'clock we go out — Dina, Marie, Olga, and I.
There is a concert. We have agreed not to look at Terffidua.
He appeared to be following us, which caused my three companions to swoon with happiness, and which amused me considerably.
It seems Collignon was never away.
I am so in love with Johnstone that I speak of him on every occasion, and my aunt gets angry. This evening I was listing the men I found handsome — I did not name Hamilton; Marie named him:
— No, that one is not handsome.
— You are mad! my aunt says to me sharply.
I go with Collignon to various places; I have it in my head to furnish the first floor of the pavilion and make it my library, and to take the kitchen of the same pavilion and make it my chemistry laboratory. A genuine alchemist's den!
In the evening at the Théâtre Français (Prince of Wales dress — good), I call this straw-coloured dress the Prince of Wales dress because I was wearing it the evening the Prince was at the theatre. No! No! I shall call it the Archiduc dress — Archiduc will remind me of the Prince and of the operetta I love because of him (Archiduc dress — good).
Walitsky and Olga come. They are giving La Périchole and Les Saltimbanques.
I was beginning to be seriously bored when Lord and Lady Folkner arrived, Lord Loftus, and one other; and in the stalls, Audiffret etc.
Almost the whole time I hid behind my fan because of the footlights — and besides, the little peasant no longer pleases me; he has wrinkled cheeks from the sun, and his snubs have tired me. What! — not to have got himself introduced by now! Those are real snubs. The devil take him — but I should like to have my revenge.
We leave during the last interval. The peasant comes out at the same time as us and looks at me a great deal while we are waiting for the carriage, and I thought I heard — quite clearly:
— She is with the Sapogenikoffs.
I am mistaken, no doubt.