There are moments when one would send the intellectual furnace, glory, and painting all to the devil, to go live in Italy — to live on sunshine,...
I was very surprised by Bonnat's portrait of Don Carlos. Badly drawn, false in tone, and little likeness.
That wretched frigate captain has hurt me again; had it not been for Tuesday's mad business I should not be so angry... Well! I congratulate his...
— Oh, good Lord, there is something — I don't know what — in the family's origins... something not quite... in short, from that point of view it is a...
But we too have our festivity: M. Georges. After which I go to tell my mother that as long as I had hope I argued with her, but now it is all over —...
As for me — I am not to be met in society.
Julian, who is a Bonapartist, came to talk with me about the pit in which Paul de Cassagnac finds himself. Defections everywhere. I have followed the...
Where would he put such money, since he barely appears to have his twenty-four thousand francs!
I received Goldsmid and Mme de Mouzay with her daughter while painting.
This has never, never been done before — one let the positioned person be and placed oneself after her, but one was never relegated to the back of...
People are alarmed when I cough; I wage battles for the right to have windows open, and so forth. Yet on the other hand, they leave me alone for half...
Only, to the men who have tried to pay me court, I would always say more or less this: Sir, I am a wicked nature — I am only entertained when alone;...
And it is my dear family who witness all this — who listen to me play, sing, improvise, swear, joke... Horror and profanation!
every house — every family interior!..
Well, sir, you are back already — did you not serve your twenty-eight days then?
The ball [words blotted: *takes place*] this evening.
so that he might see me in a proper setting. I announced his marriage yet again — Plancy has heard tell of it elsewhere too.
except that I am told there is an interesting session tomorrow at the Chamber, and I write this:
I must tell you that having finished painting at four o'clock, I could not stop reading *Le Nabab*, Alphonse Daudet's novel. It is very interesting,...
— It is not going well enough for you, Robert-Fleury tells me.
Mouzay and his daughter are dining. With the daughter we always have conversations about physiology, philosophy, and a host of things pertaining to...
And then, as it was not yet time, we walked about in the arcade while the male students also walked there, waiting for the door to open.
Impossible not to rage.
Could anything be more indelicate, more disgusting, more vile!
There is talk of a Universal Exhibition in Italy, and since Rome cannot suffice either in terms of grounds or of accommodation for foreigners, a...
I gave him three letters...
Yorke comes to invite us to go to the ball with her this evening and to obtain invitations. If not for this evening then for another — I go to...
The Bey's son dined with them and then honoured the evening with his presence. There was also music and Arab dances.
rive every month). And this devil of good health is of no use! This energy wears itself out being useful to nothing. I work... Oh! Fine achievement —...
These dynasties, these ministers who take root and rot in place, infesting the country — these court protections... That is the misfortune, that is...
But I go to the Salon with de Daillens — she overdoes her witticisms, but is otherwise quite amusing.
We were arriving just as the Marshal, his wife, and all the royal princes and archdukes were leaving. Old Moreno, then another Spaniard who asked to...
The tickets do not come!
Here is the result of Multedo's efforts.
— but M. Turquan, a clerk at the Ministry of the Interior and reserve officer of the 11th Artillery Regiment, whom I met at the Gavinis', arrives at...
— during which I amused myself greatly. Cassagnac appeared rather surprised to see us; went to borrow a pair of opera glasses; studied us; and gave a...
What a damp squib yesterday!! Let us think no more of it, for God's sake!
When Madame my mother meddles *with* someone I may as well cross that person's name from my list. "It is no longer a conviction — it is a...
Low-life gossip. No matter... each time someone speaks to me of this marriage it is a fresh grief.
It is the eve of the Grand Prix, and with the intelligence that characterises us, we go to the circus — without gentlemen. I wear the same hat as at...
The Gavinis know everyone. One would have to be as foolish as I am not to understand that a prefect under the Empire who for ten years received the...
My aunt and Etienne left for Nice on business. Maman was at the station. Yorke was to dine with us; towards six o'clock I go to collect her with the...
Eight in the evening. Pray for me — I am going to attempt a dangerous, terrible means — but at least I shall have done everything.
Well — at the Gavinis I tell them that a young Swedish friend of mine is devastated by Cassagnac's marriage. That she is rich and pretty. Gavini says...
She has gone into mourning with crepe — that is at least a fortnight's reprieve. Poor Grandpapa sends word that it is an outrage, and nods his head...
*You must receive such a shower of anonymous letters that I warn you above all that this is not one of them. Read it to the end, whatever you may...