Wednesday, 7 November 1883

I have finished the study and am going to work on the painting.

I have a slight headache, and as this is a rarity for me I am glad of it.

M. Safonoff presented his friend Ex——, something — a difficult name. These two prospects, Bojidar, and the Engelhardts dined here. I slept on the sofa to the sounds of the piano, lulled, feeling through my half-sleep my half-headache and my half-heartbreak.

Bojidar, Dina, and the others are speaking of the voyage to America as though it were the announcement of his marriage to Mother Mackay.

It is all the same to me — since I do not interest him.

Notes

Partis: eligible bachelors, marriage prospects.
Mrs. Mackay: Katherine Mackay, wife of the American silver magnate John William Mackay, with whom Bastien-Lepage was linked in Parisian gossip.