Wednesday, 12 September 1883

This evening the priest having dined here, Bagnitsky arrives, then Madame Bogdanoff. That makes a fine cluster of Russians, and they gossip. I have never had the luck to hear Russians converse properly — all they permit themselves is tittle-tattle and then interminable stories about apartments, rents, servants, etc., etc.
Madame Bogdanoff has come because people are saying that I am to marry General Fleury's son, and she wanted to find out whether it was true. They have invented that, no doubt, on account of our friendship with the Canroberts.