Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Monday, 20 March 1882

I had hoped to finish the picture by the 23rd and exhibit it. It is no longer possible — that head, so well begun and interrupted, will not come together again.
Barnola comes often; he has inherited from his aunt. I should like him to marry Dina.
Here is the letter I am writing to Julian — he wrote to me a week ago, enclosing a caricature of Cassagnac.
To M. Julian — greetings-from-the-chest.
Our miserable family, entirely given over to the vice of gambling, has aban-don-ned-water-lily us in an almost deserted and in some sense uninhabited-Russian square. The fishermen wished to take us in but soon recognised that we were more so than they — of fish — and let us go — of chicken. Opposite the villa there is a saw-farm (pharmacie for readers of Le Pays) and every evening we drink milk-swimming there after having accomplished vast works at the salad. Besides, here is the rough draft — [missing]
And Julian replies that he has gone to reserve three rooms at Mme Magnan's (Sainte-Anne) where they have: showers, straitjackets, etc. Have no anxiety.

Notes

Marie puns on salut (greetings) and poitrine (chest), referring to her pleurisy. ↩
Marie's letter to Julian is a string of puns: "aban-donnes-nuphar" plays on abandonnées and nuphar (water lily); "lait-nage" on laitage (dairy) and nage (swimming); "farme à scie" approximates pharmacie. ↩