# Sunday, 17 December 1876

Sunday, 17 December 1876

[No content recorded for this date in the extracted portion]

Monday, 18 December 1876

"I am at the Hôtel du Luxembourg with my sisters. Come at once if you can." On the advice of my mothers, at exactly one o'clock I present myself in answer to this invitation, and before entering send in to ask whether it is convenable. By way of reply, Hélène and my wretched father come down to the carriage and lead me most tenderly indoors.
The aunts Hélène and the Hunchback, who meddle in nothing, speak to me of the cardinal and advise me to go to Rome to cure his nephew of his failings and inherit his fortune.
— Poor little thing, I say, he is over there.
— Where?
— In Serbia.
— Really!
— Alas. But no — he is in Rome.
— Perhaps he has returned, for there is no more fighting, and yesterday I dined with a Russian volunteer just arrived from Serbia.
— That may be. I say he is in Rome because I read in the newspaper the account of the opening of the Skating-ring in Rome, where it was said that "the two Counts Antonelli were present."
— That is possible too. There is a skating rink in Rome!
Then the talk turned to Tutcheff; I treated her in the worst possible terms, threatening this scoundrel with a lawsuit for defamation.
— Let them attack my family, my mother — they can defend themselves! But let no one touch me, for as truly as I am a defenceless creature whom it is cowardly to slander, I shall avenge myself bravely! And for an excellent reason: because I am afraid of nothing. That is only too true. I am afraid of nothing, for I cannot be worse off than I am. I see that Maman has made an impression. Having spoken again of indifferent matters, I invited my father to take a walk with me. Then the Little Russian dialogue began again.
— Were we walking along the same road?
— We were walking.
— Did we find a fur coat?

Notes

"My mothers" — Marie's ironic plural for the various older women who advise her.
guérir son neveu et ses écus: a wordplay — "to cure" the nephew and "to recover" his écus (gold coins); the implication is to win him back and inherit his fortune.
dialogue petit-russien — conversation in the Ukrainian (Little Russian) dialect; the family used it for private matters.