In the morning we went off in a large party to fish with a net. Stretched out on a carpet (I insist on saying so; no one must suspect me of rolling...
At last, deaf to all reason, the fury came into the library; Pacha followed her, trying to hold her back, but she, heeding nothing, went into the...
A conversation with Alexandre had set my nerves on edge, and I came to fetch my father to go out, but he began asking me where I wanted to go, saying...
MM. Volkovitsky and Pavelko spent the day at Gavronzi. Volkovitsky is married to an illegitimate daughter of Prince Serge Kotchoubey, and is...
A heap of necklaces is worn round the neck, and a ribbon round the head. The hair is done in a single braid, from the end of which hang one or...
No matter! It is only the first step that costs. Yesterday I fired at fifty paces, and today I fired without the slightest fear in the company of our...
But what boredom! Not one witty word, not one educated sentence... I am a pedant, unfortunately, and I adore hearing talk of the Ancients and of the...
I have only myself to congratulate: they give way to me, they flatter me, and above all they love me. My father, who at first wanted to dethrone me,...
As we were alone, my father and I talked about Gritz's stupidity. My father is furious with him, and I am not delighted either. You know very well...
An impression... on swine! An exit... before nobody! Chocolat holding the opera glasses, the Prince carrying my train — it was all in vain.
I took him aside and, walking up and down the corridor, begged him to stay.
I paid no attention to how much or how little pleasure the sight of a Babanine gave my father, and I was busying myself with the dear little boy when...
I have perjured myself — I gave my word of honour while lying — but I got myself out of an unpleasant scrape.
— By all the rules I ought to give you a gift, but I am not a man for bouquets — I am opening a credit of a thousand roubles, three thousand three...
All day long there have been visits on legal business. First, someone came to inform my father of a committee he must chair, concerning a law about...
So then — I have been played for a fool!
Cards, always cards!
Oh! The horror! What did he take me for? What did he think of me, of my family, to treat me like a woman of the street!
I have decidedly had enough. The countryside suffocates me, numbs me, stupefies me. I told my father so, and when I spoke of marrying a king, he...
A card game for upwards of three thousand francs, and in the evening a herd of from Poltava. I sang a grand aria, and then, since we were at table...
I wonder how the Prince's hair is doing — I was so bored last evening that I burned part of it off, by his own admission.
"==Both tears and laughter=="
The horse I have been spoiling with lumps of sugar, as you know, having had two rides without a saddle, now refuses to be harnessed at all. From...
If you only knew where I spent the night! On the sofa in my father's room.
The idea was to go to Pacha's country house, but his mother is here — so I content myself with telegraphing, writing letters, and sending two parcels...
I was in such despair yesterday — it seemed to me I was chained to Russia for ever; it exasperated me, I was ready to climb the walls, and I wept...
I slept in my father's room, and until noon.
We went to Prince Serge Kotchoubey's. My father had dressed up handsomely — so handsomely that he even wore gloves a shade too light.
Nothing to record except a walk with Papa in heavy rain. A day alone with my father — the aunts were in Poltava — and in the evening great excitement...
My day is contained in a letter I have just written, which I shall give here — it is a reply to Collignon, who asks me for news of Miloradovitch.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost — I begin the hand-to-hand struggle with the invisible red bull!
I left at one in the morning for Iskrowka — a half-station — counting on no carriage, not even hoping for a cart.
Michel has at last made up his mind to come back, with an edible offering, as always.
A day of judgements *par excellence*. In the morning my father, who is chief justice of the peace, had to judge a dispute between two neighbouring...
As if the money troubles, the tenant farmers, Alexandre, all those thousand heartbreaking vexations were not enough for me!