Saturday, 11 November 1876

You need only turn back a few pages — to Monday, 6 November last — to see the dream I had. I dreamed that I was brought before Cardinal Antonelli in a rather small room with shadowy corners. To the right, seated in an armchair, sat the Cardinal dressed all in red; I approached and was so disturbed that I had to avert my eyes... and to the left I saw another Cardinal Antonelli exactly like the first, but dressed in black, and his very face seemed darker than the other's.

# Samedi 11 novembre 1876

I did not know which way to go, and woke in a state of considerable agitation. And today Pacha puts before me the Goloss¹ with this dispatch: "Rome, 6 November. Today Cardinal Antonelli is dead"...

Je ne savais vers lequel aller et me réveillai dans un trouble considérable. Et aujourd'hui Pacha me met sous les yeux le "Goloss" avec cette dépêche: "Rome, 6 novembre. Aujourd' hui le cardinal Antonelli est mort"...

Superstition is certainly a foolish thing, but one must admit that strange things happen sometimes.

Certes, la superstition est une chose stupide, mais il faut avouer que parfois il arrive des choses bizarres .

This morning at eight o'clock I left Gavronzi, and not without the faintest feeling of regret... not regret, but habit...

Ce matin à huit heures j'ai quitté Gavronzi et non sans un tout léger sentiment de regret... non, mais d'habitude...

All the servants came out into the courtyard; I gave each of them money, and to the housekeeper a gold bracelet. The snow is melting but quite enough remains to splash us on the road, and despite my keen desire to ride with my face uncovered to make my philosophical observations like M. Prudhomme,² I was forced by a relentless wind to muffle myself up entirely.

Tous les domestiques sortirent dans la cour, je donnai à chacun de l'argent et à la femme de ménage un bracelet en or. La neige fond mais il en reste bien assez pour nous éclabousser durant le chemin, et malgré mon vif désir de rester la face découverte pour faire mes observations philosophiques comme M. Prud'homme, je me vis forcée par un vent inexorable à m'emmi-touffler entièrement.

I went straight to Alexandre's, whose name I saw on the door plate. And he proceeded to recount the following anecdote:

J'entrai droit chez Alexandre dont Je vis le nom sur la planche. Et il se mit à me raconter l'anecdote suivante :

A gentleman is travelling; an officer enters and takes a seat in the same carriage; a conversation is struck up, with some difficulty, on the new horse regulations.

Un monsieur voyage, entre un officier et se place dans le même wagon, on engage tant bien que mal une conversation sur la nouvelle loi sur les chevaux.

— Are you, sir, the officer sent to our district? — asks the gentleman of the soldier. — Yes, sir. — Then you will no doubt have registered Marshal Bashkirtseff's dun horses?³ — Yes, that is so, sir. — And what do you make of those horses? The officer detailed their qualities and their faults. — Do you know Bashkirtseff and his daughter? — No, sir, I have not had that honour — I have only seen her; but I know M. Bashkirtseff. Mlle Bashkirtseff is a ravishing person. A true beauty, but a beauty "independent, original, naïve."

— C'est vous, monsieur, qui êtes envoyé dans notre district ? demande le monsieur au militaire.

I encountered her in a railway carriage near Petersburg, and she positively struck me and my comrades!

Je l'ai rencontrée dans un wagon près de Pétersbourg et elle nous a positivement frappé, moi et mes camarades I!

— That is all the more agreeable to hear, said the gentleman, rising, since I am her uncle. — Ah! And I, sir — my name is Soumarokoff. But your name? — Babanine. — Charmed. — Delighted.

— Cela m'est d'autant plus agréable à entendre, dit le monsieur en se levant, que je suis son oncle.

Etc. etc. etc.

The Count kept repeating that my place is in Petersburg and that it is abominable to keep me in Poltava.

Le comte ne cessait de répéter que ma place est à Pétersbourg et qu'il est odieux de me garder à Poltava.

Ah! Monsieur my father!

Ah ! Monsieur mon père !

— But, uncle, I said to Alexandre, you surely invented all of this. — May I never see my wife and children again if I invented a single word — and may lightning strike me dead!

— Mais mon oncle, dis-je, à Alexandre, vous avez sans doute inventé tout cela.

My father is raging, to which I pay not the slightest attention.

Mon père rage, ce à quoi je ne fais pas la moindre attention.

At seven o'clock I went with Alexandre to meet his wife and spent the evening with them.

A sept heures j'allai avec Alexandre à la rencontre de sa femme et je passai la soirée avec eux.

As Alexandre kept insisting that Pacha had spent a night standing guard over the Golden Fleece, and invoked Chocolat as witness, I confronted Chocolat and Pacha: the little devil claims to have heard how the Pole invited Pacha, but he did not see him going.

Comme Alexandre continuait à dire que Pacha avait passé une nuit à garder la Toison d'Or, et s'en rapportait au témoignage de Chocolat, je confrontai Chocolat et Pacha, le petit diable prétend avoir entendu comment le Polonais invitait Pacha, mais il ne l'a pas vu allant.

As I had spoken badly of the green man⁴ to the Babanines, I was determined to rehabilitate him before them, and having Nadine step behind the screen and Alexandre into the next room, I renewed my reproaches against Pacha, who — all flushed and flustered — repeated the same oath, adding that he was deeply humiliated by this disbelief.

Comme j'avais bien parlé de l'homme vert aux Babanine, je tenais à le réhabiliter devant eux et faisant passer Nadine derrière le paravent et Alexandre dans la chambre suivante je fis de nouveaux reproches à Pacha qui me répéta tout rouge et tout confus le même serment en ajoutant qu'il était très humilié de cette incrédulité.

Satisfied with having shone before my family, I dismissed the gentleman and spent the remaining time listening to stories about Soumarokoff — all the more so since Alexandre assured me the officer was quite mad about me.

Satisfaite d'avoir brillé devant les miens, je renvoyai le monsieur et passai le reste du temps à écouter des choses de Somorokoff d'autant plus qu'Alexandre assurait que l'officier est fou de moi.

— He is so young, Alexandre adds, that he cannot yet conceal anything.

— Il est si jeune, ajoute Alexandre, qu'il ne peut encore rien cacher.

Notes

Goloss (The Voice) — a liberal St. Petersburg newspaper. Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli (1806–1876) was Vatican Secretary of State and uncle of Pietro Antonelli. He died 6 November 1876 — the very night of Marie's dream. ↩

M. Prudhomme — pompous bourgeois character created by Henri Monnier (1830s), famous for his absurd philosophical pronouncements. Marie mocks her own pretensions to philosophical observation. ↩

Chevaux isabelle — dun or cream-coloured horses; a distinctive and sought-after colouring. ↩

"L'homme vert" (the green man) — Marie's nickname for Pacha, recurring throughout the diary. ↩

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