Sunday, 6 November 1881

[Added: That is to say, the inquiry showed that there was no grounds for a lawsuit.]
The lawsuit is over, won. It seems impossible — it has dragged on so long — and yet there it is. We have just received Maman’s telegram while Mme de Brimont was here, around ten o’clock in the evening. What a happy day.
We saw the Gavinis in the morning, then Saint-Amand, Bojidar, etc. Tomorrow I go to the Chamber with Adeline, who is delighted to see me and charges me with lifting the spirits of the elder Gavini and Géry. Prepared by the conversation with Julian and by this evening’s news, I think of the triumphant air I shall have tomorrow in my Louis XV dress — a felt hat of a somewhat Henri III shape, but the whole thing perfectly Parisian, with a bouquet of China roses at the very top of the bodice. I would have preferred violets — but they carry symbolic implications. A great session. The Tunisian question, the fall of the cabinet, Gambetta’s speech perhaps. Several times I caught myself smiling to myself, thinking of tomorrow — the session, the grey dress, the bouquet of roses, and my happy air.

Notes

The Chamber of Deputies: the lower house of the French parliament, housed in the Palais-Bourbon on the Quai d’Orsay. ↩
Violets were the emblem of the Bonapartists (see 25 June 1878); Marie is dressing for the Chamber. ↩
France had occupied Tunisia in the spring of 1881 (Treaty of Bardo, 12 May 1881) and made it a protectorate. The Chamber’s debate on the expedition in early November 1881 was expected to bring down Jules Ferry’s ministry, which resigned soon after; Gambetta formed his government on 14 November. ↩