Friday, 4 May 1877

Marcuard found me daubing at my own portrait. If I manage to produce a sketch it will already be something — rendering shadows and colors from memory is no small matter.
On Monday Marcuard is giving a lunch for the Mirafiores; they will see my photograph at his house — the one I promised him yesterday "to add to the lovely things you already have."
I think and speak about my family as much as about Larderei himself. The day I went to the Naples Skating rink with Pelikan, I saw Mme de Mirafiore and she struck me as so disagreeable that I returned to the hotel declaring there was nothing there but a dreadful little woman and a sort of adventurer (her husband). But now I have changed my mind — not on account of the family connection, but because it seems to me they all look at me with such kindness.
I pursued la Righi as far as I possibly could in the carriage — she was with the child, who was playing, and whom she kissed with her ugly painted mouth!
I succeeded in seeing the child, who greatly resembles... the same elegant nose and the same very dark, lustreless eyes, and already the same manner — nonchalant, haughty, and wild.
I loathe children, but I should be glad enough to take that one — I want so much to embrace her, to hold her on my knee... to have her always for my own. And besides — it would be so original.
I want to see la Righi completely naked, and for that one would need to see her... we shall think of something... we have found a way.
In the evening Dina imitates the woman for me and we laugh until one in the morning.
Oh! the madwoman! The Aquarium strikes me as more stupid by the day.
Since the Pergola is closed I have no means of showing myself; in this way no one will be introduced to me and I shall be bored — no, one must hope not.
God, how I want Silène's daughter.
Is it not maddening that he should have gone away travelling on account of his affair with la Righi! Travelling as if after some great despair!

Notes

"L'Aquarium": Marie's nickname for a person (likely a rival or social figure from Naples). The exact referent is unclear from context alone.
The Teatro della Pergola, Florence's principal opera house and theater; closed for the season.
"Silène" is Marie's code name for Larderei (from the Sorrento hotel "Hôtel de la Sirène"). His daughter Alexandrine is the child she has been obsessing over.