Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Monday, 24 February 1879

At the London House one sees Des Perrières.
I am happy when I can walk alone. The waves are of an incomparable beauty; before going to hear Patti, I went to listen to them. It had been raining; there was a gentle, delightful coolness. It does one's eyes good to gaze into the dark blue of the sky and sea at night. I walked so long that I did not see a section of the promenade washed away by water, and fell into that precipice of a metre or two in depth.
Among all sorts of undesirables, Maman had the luck to strike up a friendship with Monsieur and Madame Basilewsky, friends of the Anitchkoffs; I made their acquaintance in Monaco. They are people of society.
We heard Patti in La Traviata. She sings with Nicolini, who has separated from his wife just as she separated from her husband the Marquis de Caux. I laughed at them for it; I blamed them. But when one sees them sing together, when one sees such beauty and these two divine talents united — one gives them every justification.
Theirs is the only singing one should ever hear. One is astonished to have been able to listen to anything else before, and will not be able to hear anything after. Sometimes singers have given me pleasure through feeling, through passion... in passages. But this evening it is a complete pleasure. Beauty, singing, and acting — everything is there, without counting that one cannot help thinking they truly love each other.
Albani's singing is correct and accomplished. Patti's is adorably correct, divinely accomplished — but it has not made me shudder or weep even once.
One is enchanted, one is ravished to hear her; not an effort, not a grimace. I would like to hear her in Faust, in Aida, or in Mignon.
The power of gold!!
If I were rich I could. It costs 10,000 francs.
I am in a low-cut gown, in black; not very pretty. Lewin went to Paul in the corridor, reminding him he had known him as a child. Paul has found friends here.
Marcuard and Bikowski came to us despite the scarcity of visits on account of the solemnity of the occasion.
But we had Gautier throughout — said to be the most handsome of men, and in addition an excellent fellow. He is so handsome that we keep telling him so, laughing all the while, and I fear he takes it for mockery. I would reproach him for hair as coarse and thick as horsehair — but of a blue-black. The bridge of his nose is a perfection; what purity, what color! You have no idea of the cut of his eyes, the warm matte color of his eyelids. I would dearly like to know whether he has success with women. As for me, he leaves me absolutely cold as a woman. After the Opera we supper at the London House as a family. Our escorts were not invited.