Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Tuesday, 27 March 1883

Villevieille writes to congratulate me and explain his silence — it seems Julian had told him he was vexed to know nothing about the painting, that he knew only of the admission of Irma. And so, even though I had received a positive note after that, I am seized again with anxiety. Yet Julian's card is clear.
Yes but... in short I write to him again.
And also — how tactful of Julian to go and say that in the middle of the studio, to Villevieille who is not my sister, in front of everyone — that he knows nothing and is anxious. Suppose I had been rejected... He makes one suppose it in advance... Well, what can one say. It was I who attributed good feelings towards me to him... No matter... I would have said nothing in his place even for an indifferent person... I would only have said such a thing like that in front of everyone about an enemy — and even then...
It is sad...
But I have just been searching the Odyssey — Homer does not give the scene I imagined. True, it must come as the logical and inevitable conclusion of what precedes — but he does not give it. However, Ulysses' speech, full of praise and admiration, when approaching Nausicaa, must inevitably have gone to her head; she explains as much to her companions...
She takes him for a god — and he returns her the same compliment...
In short, it is so.
I shall read Ulysses' words again.
When he appears naked and begrimed to the young Phaeacian women, they all flee — Nausicaa remains alone. "It is Minerva who gives her this courage."
The old rake — this old schemer, very handsome at that — needs clothing and protection, and he compares Nausicaa to Diana.
So she must be tall, elegant, and slender.
His eyes, he says, have never seen a mortal like her.
He then compares her to a palm shoot that struck him dumb with wonder at Delos, near the altar of Apollo, during a voyage he made there followed by a great company — and that voyage was for him the source of the greatest misfortunes.
Thus in a few words he lavishes upon her the finest flatteries and presents himself in a poetic, majestic light — worthy of the keenest interest on account of his misfortunes, seeming persecuted by the gods.
For me it is impossible that this young girl — whose spirit and beauty render her the equal of immortals — should not be seized by an extraordinary feeling, above all given the disposition in which the prophetic dream had placed her...
In short it seems that Villevieille had misunderstood. Julian had spoken only of the head of Irma because he did not even think it useful to mention that the painting was accepted — there could be no doubt about Irma and so on. I am entirely, definitively accepted.
Breslau has no number, as they say.