Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Tuesday, 31 October 1882

Only Alexandre, his wife, Garnitsky and Michka remain; all of them leave this evening. There is also Uncle Nicolas.
It appears they drank at Dikanka yesterday in a manner beyond imagining. The others are very flattered by this friendship with the Kotchoubeys, and Poltava is dazzled by it.
The whole day is spent talking about yesterday's wines.
This Dina simply does not see that people are laughing at her — she has no sense of it. I told her what was needed; and today there were again revolting flirtatious provocations with Michka, whom she actually struck for real, and who was not pleased. And that is my fault, because yesterday I played the joke of hitting him rather hard — he prostrated himself in apparent delight and I gave him my hand to kiss afterwards. So she wanted to reproduce the scene. You will remember how I used to tease Blanc in the days of Cassagnac, and how she would do the same thing — and how Blanc himself told her she did not know where to stop. Always going too far, always. Ah — it is tiresome.

Notes

Dikanka: the famous estate of the Kotchoubey family in the Poltava region, renowned in Russian culture through Gogol's story collection Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka (1831–32). For the Bashkirtseff family circle, being received there was a mark of considerable social prestige. ↩