Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Sunday, 18 January 1880

We pay many calls. At the Gavinis' there is a crowd. The entire Multedo family, except him. The marquis, the marquise, and Mme Piccioni born Multedo. We exchange courtesies. I chat with Las Cases and Nervo.
Las Cases has sixty thousand francs of income and a fine mansion on the rue Saint-Florentin.
I was mistaken in supposing him penniless.
The Countess Waldner and the Viscountess Pernety were not at home. We leave cards as well as at Mme Adam's.
Doctors and other serious people at Mme Krishaber's.
On returning home we find the Lancasters and M. Bertin, and once they have gone M. Gery arrives. The father of the incomparable...
I am inclined toward melancholy thanks to my cough and my pain in the side. This gives me a tragic air, and the adorable Gabriel reappears. He has no doubt already received my parcel.
Ah! All these people bore me! I would like to free myself so as to see whom I please. To marry a Russian or an Italian so as to be free in France..., a great lord very well established. Or else to marry Gambetta or Arnaud, but these are only dreams.
A Russian or an Italian, that is reality. But a French man of the world necessarily belonging to a party, never! Unless it were an exceptional fortune.
You understand me at last.
I find society people insipid! And note that I see Bonapartists, who are the amusing ones... Yes, society for the proprieties, but the intelligent world...
Ah! I am unhappy.