Friday, 21 June 1878

I am downcast. I wanted to write to Cassagnac père — but what do you expect me to say to the old fool today? Yesterday it was different.
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 his head and his hand, and cries out to be told more about this revolting marriage. At moments it seems to me I have no further interest in life, that everything is lost; at other moments I care very little about it, laugh, and invent nonsense. It is Robert-Fleury who will be pleased with my drawings... the poor man will never understand why they are so bad. Yesterday at the Queen of Spain’s, the Shah had M. de Cassagnac presented to him, spoke to him with very particular warmth, and then sent word that he had been decorated with the Order of the Lion and the Sun. All this for Mlle Acard — dark, faded, past her prime! It is revolting and ridiculous.

Notes

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (1831-1896), Shah of Persia, in Paris for the Exposition on his second European journey. The «reine d’Espagne» is Isabella II, deposed in 1868 and living in Paris. ↩
The Order of the Lion and the Sun, the principal Persian order of chivalry. ↩