Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Sunday, 9 July 1876

Rémy and his father called on us. You know that Rémy is twenty? He is an excellent young man and I am very glad to have him as a childhood friend. Father and son showered me with every compliment imaginable and took their leave in hopes of seeing us on the Allée des Acacias.
Although pale and weary in both mind and body, I dressed and we went to the Bois. Besides, I am so accustomed to being elegant that it no longer costs me the slightest effort.
In that avenue there was no one but the right sort of people. But I could not see well — I was drowsy, as at the Vienna Universal Exhibition. We encountered the Gonzalès, or Moreno as one prefers, and I took care to greet only the men and not to notice the greetings of Mme Moreno and her daughter.
La Prodgers is here. She is at present the mistress of Baron Roissard, a deputy for the Alpes-Maritimes. That baron was penniless — poor as a church mouse — and grew rich by marrying the daughter of an old Englishman and his chambermaid, who was married to the Englishman's Black manservant. But the woman having also had children by her husband, the baron Roissard found himself with a number of small Black brothers- and sisters-in-law.
Besides, everyone in Nice knows this story, and M. Roissard is rather disliked there, so Mme di Clavesana told me.
How is one to think of a wretch like Pietro when one sees in Paris such luxury, such elegance, such wealth! [EIGHT LINES CANCELLED]
There is Mme Rattazzi in her eight-spring barouche, with red-and-gold-and-blue livery and the footman at the back of the carriage for additional grandeur — except that the back of his livery is quite threadbare and wretched, and the lady herself is heavily painted. [one line crossed out]
And here is the Princesse de Bourbon, daughter of an American cocotte — she rather looks the part. Her husband is the son of the Comte d'Aquila, uncle of the King of Naples, and of the Emperor of Brazil's sister. And this woman's mother was a prostitute!
God's justice!
Bice introduced me to a M. Gay so as to repeat one of my mots to him. While my aunt was looking at a... what do you call it? A... panorama, I think — I had a conversation in English with Rice and Gay. At least it is useful.
I was lying on a chaise longue, stupefied by those unwholesome reveries, when someone knocked at the door. I went to see for myself — it was my dear Uncle Georges, who is in Paris at present. Half drunk, half mad. He boasts of having found a protector against those who tyrannise him — the courts of Nice and Aix, where he has been tried for causing an affray and assault.
Guess that protector — imagine that this drunken scoundrel went to call on Prince Wittgenstein! And the Prince received him kindly, for the life of my dear uncle is nothing other than a caricature of his own.
But the idea of calling on Wittgenstein! They got drunk together. He proposed introducing me to Paul de Cassagnac — I refused.
Ah! I am bored, I am miserable.
I saw my dear Gioia *.
What is it about that woman that attracts me?
One day I shall speak to her... when I am queen.
Ah! How sad my life is! And Moreno tells me that I am beauty, wit, and happiness personified!
Besides, I appear exceedingly happy, and I take care to convince those who know me that I desire nothing, that I am rich, courted, happy — very happy, perfectly happy.
I hate idle compassion.
I am myself only before God. Holy Virgin, make him have pity on me.

Notes

Allée des Acacias — the fashionable carriage promenade in the Bois de Boulogne, later immortalised by Proust. ↩
Du monde comme il faut — people of the right sort, proper society; key register marker. ↩
Vienna Universal Exhibition — the 1873 World Exhibition in Vienna, which Marie attended. ↩
Baron Roissard — a deputy (member of parliament) for Alpes-Maritimes. La Prodgers — an English/Irish woman of ambiguous social standing, known in Nice. ↩
Mme Rattazzi — Marie-Laetitia de Solms, née Bonaparte-Wyse (1831–1902), widow of Italian statesman Urbano Rattazzi; literary hostess and granddaughter of Lucien Bonaparte. Known for her ostentatious salon. ↩
Eight-spring barouche — calèche huit-ressorts; a luxury open carriage. ↩
The "Princesse de Bourbon" — connected to the Bourbon-Two Sicilies family. The Comte d'Aquila was Prince Luigi of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1824–1897); his son married a woman of American merchant origins. ↩
Cocotte — kept woman, courtesan; highly pejorative. ↩
In English in the original. ↩
Panorama — a popular 19th-century entertainment: large circular paintings viewed from the inside of a cylindrical room. ↩
Canaille — scoundrel, rascal; strong pejorative. ↩
Prince Wittgenstein — likely Prince Alexander of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, a Russian-German aristocrat known for a dissolute lifestyle. ↩
Griser — to intoxicate; grisés ensemble — drunk together. ↩
Paul de Cassagnac (1843–1904) — Bonapartist journalist and politician, deputy for Gers in 1876, editor of Le Pays. Marie follows his career with great interest. ↩
Gioia * — the Duke of Hamilton's former mistress; asterisk marks a coded name. ↩