Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Saturday, 26 April 1879

— When there is love, one has no need of money.
— You would not think so...
— Oh! No, not I, Blanc — and then?
— And then I know a great deal more besides.
— I am listening — but I too know certain things...
— About the same person?..
— In the same neighbourhood, but I am listening — only, how can you say such dreadful things about your employer?
— Oh! And how am I to tell you the rest if you say that.
— It is merely an observation; I am discreet.
— As a matter of discretion I do not trust you.
— That is unkind, Blanc — you who know me so well, I have even used tu with you.
— Yes, but with you that means nothing.
— Fortunately.
— I will only tell you that the Hungarian woman, as you call her, has given Paul a magnificent pair of horns now that she has learned about his wife's affairs, and that Paul continues his relations with the said Hungarian woman to the present day.
— Fie! I would sooner hear what you cannot tell me...
But I had too many young men about me to keep Blanc, and even so Madame Gavini was not pleased to see me with him; the next day — that is to say, today — Monsieur Gavini explains to me that Blanc is not a man of society, that Blanc is a sort of Cassagnac but inferior, and that socially he is third-rate.
We left early, and behaved as people who come to make an impression and do not trouble themselves about their own pleasure... making an impression being a very great pleasure in itself.
Blanc did not dare tell me everything, because I was occupied with those who were looking at me and maintained throughout a little manner that was agreeable but very lofty, putting a kind of barrier between what was said and... the rest.
So that is how it is, my poor Cassagnac... you are a vile creature within? And this very fellow was telling us he had refused a dowry of five million "because there was a stain in the family." O magnificent Bonapartist.
In short, I should like to know what is true — is she too little or too much of a one, the beautiful Julia?
As for the dowry, that must be true. Goldsmid, who is perfectly informed about everything, said the same.
Wasn't he foolish, Popaul?
What an idiot. With me he would have become everything in the world... Just think — alone I have found the Gavinis, and little by little I find others — and with him I should have been a force... All the same, it pleases me...