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