Tuesday, 30 May 1876

It is not yet noon and I have already had a meeting with the marble-worker who came to inspect my bathroom and is already at work on a shell of the most... allegorical sort — but I shall describe everything together. I shall be glad when I am rid of my tin bathtub.
But it is not to say that that I am writing — it is to tell my dream: I was receiving a letter from Rome so long, so very long, that the pages were sewn together into two notebooks.
Needless to say, the dream did not come true.
Evening has come and I find not a word to say.
They forced me to take a turn on foot, threatening me with an illness like the one at Spa, which might well result from this state of inactivity. Indeed I no longer stir, except to go twice to the pavilion for lunch and dinner. I speak so softly and have such a frozen look that Maman asked me why I am so cold.
— I beg your pardon, Madame?
— But you look as though you have just stepped out of a cold bath.