Sunday, 5 December 1880

I have not worked, nor gone out. Madame de Brimont has come every evening; I have been to Madame Gavini's, and yesterday Saturday we went together to the opening night of Jean Beaudry at the Francais. In the stage box B., M. Trebinsky, whom I call "Tres-bien," was with us. He is a tall, dark man, shy and rather awkward.
The usual public of opening nights, the government, old mother Adam, etc. Beside us was the Rattazzi with her third husband, the Sieur de Rute. She is faded, but one understands that men could have damned themselves for this woman. Eyes veiled and before which one would kneel; as for the smile, the expression of the face — I have never seen anything like it. This expression is the consequence of the ascendancy she knew how to exercise. But the bust is in ruins...
Today I dress up. Skirt of faded garnet plush, apron-front of marvelous satin gathered at the waist; Robespierre-style jacket in cloth of the same tone with lapels of plush and satin, white collar and cravat with jabot. Plush hat.
The feet... my feet always remind me of Randouin and Lahirle getting down on their knees and pretending not to find them because they are so small. We go to Madame de Brimont's, then to the Gavinis' and the Moreaus'.
Saint-Amand has just left and we agreed — he to marry me to Leon, I to name him Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Dr. Potain came this morning and wants me to go to the south until March.
Without that I shall soon be unable to breathe or move from my bed. That is going well. For four years now I have done everything the celebrities prescribe and I go from bad to worse... I have even gone so far as to lay hands on my beauty — I have daubed my right collarbone with iodine. And it is no better. Could my ordinary troubles perhaps have an influence on my health? Yet the larynx and bronchi are generally not subject to moral afflictions...
I know nothing about it; I do what I am told to do, guard against imprudences, no longer wash except with hot water, and am still ill.
Villevieille told me yesterday that Tony, having come to critique them on Saturday, asked to see our competition paintings, and that he found my eyes were singularly drawn but that there was good in it and very pretty things and charming tones. He is not pleased with the competition in general, all the same. If I do not get the medal, I shall still have done a fairly good study.

Notes

Juliette Adam (1836-1936), prominent French writer, salon hostess, and founder of the literary journal La Nouvelle Revue.
Marie Laetitia Bonaparte-Wyse (1831-1902), known as the Princesse Rattazzi after her second marriage, a celebrated salon hostess married three times.