Robert-Fleury gave me a thirty-five-minute lesson. What is astonishing is that Cassagnac does not reply at all — that has never happened before.
I was very surprised by Bonnat's portrait of Don Carlos. Badly drawn, false in tone, and a poor likeness.
That wretched frigate captain has hurt me again; had it not been for Tuesday's follies I should not be so angry... Well! I congratulate his future...
— 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...
Dress him as one likes, place him wherever one will, everyone will stop involuntarily and ask: who is that man?
I received Goldsmid and Mme de Mouzay with her daughter while painting.
This has never, never been done before — one left the person who had taken the place where she was and placed oneself after her, but one was never...
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 have a wicked nature — I enjoy myself only when alone;...
And it is my dear family who witness all this — who listen to me play, sing, improvise, swear, joke... Horror and profanation!
One ought to love one's home — and there is nothing sweeter than resting there, dreaming of other things one has done, of people one has seen... but...
Franceschi — Corsican, as you know — converted to Republicanism since his son was appointed prefect.
Well, sir, you are back already — did you not serve your twenty-eight days then?
The ball this evening.
There are foreigners who come to Rome for a fortnight and stay all their lives.
For once, by some chance, be of use. Send me at least two tickets for tomorrow, Friday. If you send them, I promise first to dress simply so as not...
I must tell you that having finished painting at four o'clock, I could not stop reading *The Nabob*, Alphonse Daudet's novel. It is very interesting,...
— It is not going well enough for you, Robert-Fleury tells me.
Mouzay and her 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.
We were seven: Lady Lacon, her two sons, her daughter, her daughter-in-law, and M. Foster. The conversation was very English between the gentlemen...
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 ask us to go to the ball with her this evening, and to get invitations. If not for this evening then for another — I go to Caroline's,...
The Bey's son dined with them and then honoured the evening with his presence. There was also music and Arab dances.
We visited a fine atelier; I trembled with delight as I walked through it — for the mere sight of a great well-lit atelier that one is about to...
I went to the Exhibition and then to the Bois. At the Exhibition we meet the Marquis de Pascarola, from Naples; at the Bois, the whole world.
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.
To calm myself I sing "the melody of Caen" — *"If I were queen of the fair land of France!"* A charming, quite old melody of perfect feeling —...
— during which I enjoyed myself. Cassagnac seemed rather surprised to see us, went to borrow a pair of glasses, eyed us through them 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...
Gutter 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. It took a goose like me not to understand that a prefect under the Empire who for ten years received the whole of Europe...
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 try a dangerous, terrible expedient — 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...
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 *yes* with...
*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...