Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Monday, 2 May 1881

To the Salon, of course — alone in the morning but running into fellow students; in the afternoon with Papa and Alexis, then the Gavinis, Villevieille, Kireyewsky, etc. etc. Around six o'clock Gabriel comes to see us and we arrange to meet at the Salon tomorrow.
This evening Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie — Pailleron at the Comédie-Française. Delightful comedy, and I make a great effect with my neck. All in black, high-necked dress open only in a square just enough to show the collar-bones; my neck appears so white that it is very much ogled through opera glasses.

Notes

Le Monde où l'on s'ennuie (The World where One is Bored, 1881): a hugely successful satirical comedy by Édouard Pailleron (1834–1899), poking fun at pretentious literary and political salons. It ran for over a year at the Comédie-Française and became one of the most talked-about comedies of the early Third Republic. The words blacked out may have been a variant title or a more offensive phrase. ↩