Goodness!  What prices people ask in Rome!  For 1,800 francs one has only the barest necessaries!  At the Hotel de Rome I saw an apartment so large and so fine that it made my head ache.  In France we have no idea of this grandeur, this ancient majesty.  After much searching we have taken an apartment in the second story of the Hotel de Londres, with a balcony looking out upon the Piazza di Spagna, a handsome drawing-room, several bedrooms, and a study.  We went to B——­’s studio.  He has very fair talent.

Tuesday, January 11th, 1876.

We did not go out, but the artist Kalorbinski came, and to-morrow the lessons will begin.  Monseigneur de Faloux, being unable to go out himself, sent the Chevalier Rossy to bring us a number of pleasant messages.  I received him.  I have learned a great deal about affairs in the city.

I am very proud of receiving some one myself.  It seems like a sovereign’s first decree.  The Russian priest has come to call on us too.  I like the cowled monks in Rome.  They are new to me, and that pleases me.

At last I have a teacher of painting; that is something.  This evening I see everything in rose-colour, and I am already thinking of a letter in which it will be said of A——­:  Et eum dicat super malitiosum, improbum, inhonestum, cupidum, luxuriosum, ebriosum! Exactly what Septimus Severus said of Albinus.

If only the winter would pass more quickly.  With all my misfortunes, I feel better in Nice, I can give myself up to despair as much as I please.  Only last Spring, there was nobody there.  The best people gathered around us.  P——­ was deserted, so were the others.  While this Spring there will again be nobody, but P——­ will have Miss R——.  These ladies, under the leadership of T——­, will form a sort of court, like that of the young Princess G——­ and Mme. T——­ three months since.  Both died three months ago.

We shall see.  Meanwhile let us study, and try to go into society.  Let us pray to God, and amuse ourselves by writing letters.

Wednesday, January 12th, 1876.

B——­ and his cousin have called to see us.  When these Russians go, I put on my dressing gown again, and say a lot of things, and rank myself among the goddesses, then descend to calling myself a little bundle of dirty linen.

I like to indulge in extravagant speeches, and make Mamma laugh.  I received a letter from B——­, this charming friend gives me the news of Nice.  P——­has had a reception, and everybody went.  It seems that we were mentioned in the presence of quite a large number of persons in the consul’s house, and the consul and his wife said nothing but good about us.

“I was glad,” B——­ wrote, “to see that they were your friends, too, though you no longer went there so often.”

After all, I am very happy, very calm, and I am going to bed.

Thursday, January 13th, 1876.

Mamma and Dina are at church.  It is our New Year’s Day, and I have stayed at home to sew.  That is my whim at present, and I must do what I wish.  B——­ called to offer his good wishes.