Tuesday, 3 October 1882

They have arrived; they have been to see Maman, who finds them charming and telegraphs me as much. I shall leave Sunday at eight in the evening... Unless I change my mind.
I had a model in the evening and had the foolishness to let Saint-Amand in. Needless to say I was unable to work — and one should have seen him; he was entirely worked up and tried to pinch the poor girl, whom I had hastily wrapped in a drapery — otherwise!
No — first of all one must never let anyone in; for those unaccustomed to nudity it must seem more than strange. She was posing behind a screen — what would it have been had he seen her naked! They say he is less than a man — yet the mere idea that there was a naked woman behind that screen had changed his voice and his eyes... Zola — where are you? It is ignoble...