“I believe we shall end by lodging in the baths of Caracalla or in the Coliseum.  The foreigners will take me for the ghost of a Christian martyr, devoured by some fierce tiger in the presence of some carnivorous emperor.  As to the furniture, we will be content with fragments of statues or a few bones, the sublime remains of a henceforth impossible past.  After my installation in the Coliseum, or in the Forum, I will give you the most minute details concerning the Eternal City.  Meanwhile, I shall expect a letter from you, my dear General, which will be, I know, kind and charming.  Now good-bye until we meet again.

MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF.”

It is the truth, there is not a habitable apartment; where are we?  Can this horrible city be called a capital?  We are not in Europe!  Not a house fit to rent.  I am discouraged, tired, but I will not stir before May.

O Rome!  I think that we shall take a larger apartment in the hotel, and stay there.  One can breathe only in the Piazza di Spagna.  It is impossible that this is Rome!  What a mixture of beautiful antiquities and modern trash!

Thursday, January 6th, 1876.

B——­ has been here again and brought the addresses of some professors.  Then we took a carriage, and Mamma went to the Russian priest’s, the archimandrite Alexander.  Being an archimandrite, he is married, for in our country priests and deacons can be married once.  Mamma says that he is charming.  Our embassy makes no show, and has not even any regular reception day.

This society makes me love Rome.  I scarcely regret Nice, the ungrateful, wicked city.

Sad and irresolute yesterday, I am gay and confident to-day.  I have written to my aunt to send me F——­, the ugly little negro will be very nice to have here.

I have had a good dinner, and spent the evening in reading the history of Charles the Bold.

I thought, “in my ingenuous candour,” that there was no society except in Nice, but there is a great deal, and even very excellent.

After the drive we went down the Corso, thronged with carriages, between rows of pedestrians of all classes.  D——­was among them.  Now that my eyes are opened to see the beauties and antiquities of Rome, I am growing curious, eager to visit everything.  I am no longer drowsy.  I am in a hurry to be everywhere.  I want to live at full speed again.  Ah! if only I could!...  Again a longing for Nice.  The poorest thing, by resisting, gains worth.  Be thoroughly convinced of this genuine truth.  Do not believe that I am stupefied to the point of not seeing beyond the city of S——­; on the contrary, I am more ambitious than ever.  But meanwhile, to spit upon some one who has spit on us, to give the person a kick, is a pleasure which every well-born soul can permit itself.

Friday, January 7th, 1876.