❦
Sunday, 4 February 1877
I was at church, then we went to the Anitchkoffs’, and Mme Anitchkoff told me that “something” had been written about us in the Figaro; she does not know what, for she only heard it from others; she is going to look for the issue.Dimanche 4 février 1877 J’étais à l’église, puis nous sommes allées chez les Anitchkoff et Mme Anitchkoff m’a dit qu’on avait écrit “quelque chose” de nous dans le Figaro, elle ne sait pas quoi car on lui a dit, elle va chercher le numéro.
I replied that I knew nothing.
J’ai répondu que je ne savais rien.
In the middle of the Promenade, in an enormous crowd, I jumped down from my basket carriage1 to walk home with Maman. [words crossed out] For quite a long way we were followed by two cocottes in a white basket carriage with white horses. An ugly basket carriage, a pair of nags, but it was none the less unbearable.
Au milieu de la Promenade, d’une foule énorme, je sautai de mon panier pour rentrer à pied avec maman. [Mots cancellés] Car pendant un espace assez long nous fûmes suivies de deux cocottes en panier blanc et chevaux blancs. Un panier laid, des rosses, mais ce n’en fut pas moins insupportable.
Someone has staged this piece of mockery. The revenge is witty, and above all effective. I should like to take my revenge like that.
C’est quelqu’un qui a monté cette scie. La vengeance est spirituelle et efficace surtout. Je voudrais me venger ainsi.
It is atrocious.
C’est atroce.
I am powerless against so many abominable pinpricks, against so many infamies.
Je suis sans force contre tant de piqûres abominables, contre tant d’infamies.
Such odious things!
Des choses si odieuses !
Very well I am going away, but I shall come back. In Nice I have suffered, in Nice I...
C’est bon Je m’en vais, mais je reviendrai. A Nice j’ai souffert, à Nice je...
Notes
In French in the original: panier — a light open carriage with a basket-work body, driven by its owner; a fashionable conveyance for ladies. ↩