Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Wednesday, 13 October 1875

What, one may wonder, do the letters H. G. t. D. O. H. signify?
His Grace the Duke of Hamilton.
Now that Maman is at the pavilion I am there nearly all day.
My aunt recounts the abduction of Girofla and my fury — and I smile. It is very cold with heavy rain.
I go out nonetheless. But in the evening we return to the same conversation — I want to go into society. No one could imagine the inner conflicts I endure!
I have received my painted portrait. It is a little shorter than this page but admirably done and a very good likeness.
Are we women or brutes? That is the question I have been putting to Dina since this morning. Were we born with heads or without them? In what does woman surpass the other animals?
If we are women, if we have heads, and if woman is truly superior to the other animals, we must prove it by making the acquaintance of the English family.
It is difficult! I know it perfectly well — they know no one through whom we might know them. That is why I go about asking everyone whether we are women or brutes.
A fine achievement, to make the acquaintance of people moving in the same circle as oneself — that takes neither wit nor invention. But here lies the difficulty.
— My dear, says Dina, we must have them before the arrival of the nightingale — otherwise it will be dreadful.
— Yes, he has me in his power; for what can I produce? Saetone, Galula? He will not believe in them. While he has at his disposal, even within our own house and the Sapogenikoffs', several very credible alternatives.
If he comes back and gives me the cold shoulder, I am done for.
What I have just said is not the pinnacle of refinement — but it is entirely true.

Notes

In English in the original. The formal British style for addressing a duke. Despite the months devoted to the Audiffret affair, Hamilton remains Marie's supreme reference point. ↩
A reference to the operetta Girofle-Girofla (Lecocq, 1874), in which pirates kidnap one of a pair of twin sisters. Marie uses the plot as a running metaphor for Gioia "stealing" Audiffret. ↩
"The nightingale" (le rossignol) is Marie's code name for Audiffret, derived from the Nicois song "le rossignol che vola" (the flying nightingale). ↩