Friday, 20 August 1880

The day before yesterday I wrote three pages on freedom of thought (not to be confused with freethought), and today I find my complaints in letter XV of Mme E. de Girardin. And I who thought I had found something new...
It is half past seven. The baron sends to ask for news of me. Those poor wretches have only just returned; having left at nine in the morning, they lunched at Betz: the Moreaus, Potin, and Mlle Devick. I spent a detestable day, coughing, reading, dozing. The waters have made my head heavy, my breathing difficult, and with that an extraordinary laziness. This is perhaps because I do not swallow their horrors... And I believe myself disgusted with food for a long time; I must tell you what was in my soup so that you understand: worms, and at the table d'hote they all ate similar chickens, but since they were roasted and in gravy... So in the morning I take two cups of coffee with cream, then I eat strawberries or bread with syrup, and for dinner chocolate or sardines. But I am beginning to have enough of all this; we leave tomorrow.