Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Sunday, 28 August 1881

Bojidar all day. We walk in the Bois… Sarah being at Lille and Bojidar not going to join her until tomorrow. We have him to ourselves. Oh rapture. I humor his obsession and we speak of nothing but the celebrated woman. That confounded Bojidar is clever, all the same — he has invented an entire novel: at the age of eight he went to see Le Passant and fainted upon hearing Sarah; from that moment he has adored her. (Not two years ago he was telling me dreadful things about her and none of this was at issue.) And there he is, installed at her house, intimate with her son — it costs him not a penny. As a guest he lodged with her and dined there every day, treated more or less like a son. Not to mention that he sees there all who are celebrated — and he also has theater tickets.
So the princess and her husband are delighted. But there is no danger of Bojidar ever doing anything reckless. He is in the process of passing his law examinations while attending premieres and following Sarah on her provincial tours… when the journey does not exceed two or three hours by train. Very clever. The Karageorgevitches have made their way in Paris somewhat as we have — that is to say not at all. [Words blacked out: the worst of it] knowing only a few Romanian or Greek families…
The sons frequent a few republican salons and all the foreign, socially dubious ones.
Sarah Bernhardt's circle will serve them better. But they are so… Slavic! Did the princess not go and ask Andrieux, the former Prefect of Police, for a position as secretary or personal attaché for Alexis!
They do not understand at all how life and society work — and even in relation to these republicans they have positioned themselves as nobodies, being princes of the house of Karageorgevitch.

Notes

Le Passant (1869): one-act verse play by François Coppée; Sarah Bernhardt's performance in it first made her famous. ↩