Tuesday, 22 April 1879

I am just back from the Vaudeville. (My evenings are quite free — the evening courses have stopped.) A society play — amusing, topical.
I am too wretched — one must find a way out. I do not know what to do. Would it not be better?... Oh! no, no, no; at twenty it is too soon — I could marry at twenty-three, that way. As for a truly advantageous marriage, if one presents itself, I naturally take it.
In the meantime... let us work... I cannot go into society — what would I do without work.
Yes, painting as a last resort. The thing is I had counted heavily on painting... and the moment I can count on it no longer, there is nothing left, and time passes, and the lines add to lines — it provides relief, but the next day it is always the same thing. Oh! when I set myself to turning over all these suppositions, all these plans, hopes, calculations, alternatives... it is maddening.