Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Saturday, 30 April 1881

We argue heatedly about the departure for Russia and all those matters. I say the same things as in my letter to my father; I end up weeping, but then there is such a display of tenderness — because I said that in sum I ask nothing: you are the one who comes making... offers; I set my conditions; you refuse? Very well — go to bed!
In the evening to the Italiens. I am very smart — a modestly low neckline, but revealing as much as can be. Patti is adorable tonight — beautiful, graceful, elegant, pretty. As for Nicolini, he had a true triumph: he was acclaimed, the audience rising, the ladies applauding from their boxes; deeply moved, he repeated the number.

Notes

Un décolleté pudique: Marie's own wry phrase — a "modest décolletage," i.e., showing as much as propriety allows. ↩
Ernest Nicolini (1834–1898): French tenor, Adelina Patti's lover and later husband (they married in 1886). He was a regular performer in Patti's Paris seasons at the Italiens. ↩