Wednesday, 6 November 1878

Princess Eristoff came to stay with her niece Mlle Bashkirtseff, and M. Gambetta gave her two Versailles tickets with the promise of coming to call on her.
Cassagnac was already engaged when he told me he had never heard anyone change their voice as I had changed mine — the day of the five women.
Only... the Empire will not come. I swear it to you. If the young one returns, I shall send a bullet into his head, or a knife-thrust, or a drop of poison, luring him to an assignation.
Behind the habitual self-assurance and composure of the hero of the hour, I glimpsed for the first time something else: authority.