12–18 May 1856

Michael Islavin came in the morning, then Sokovnfn and Timm. Timm asked me to write the text for a sheet. Am very pleased. Dined with Nekrasov. Fet i*s a darling, with a fine talent. I felt cheerful. Spent the evening with the Tolstdys and read the Two Hussars. They have a kindly but somehow very ridiculous woman there, Maltseva : thirty-five, with a sort of sincere naivete, wrinkles like an old woman, and curls. On coming home found a note from Vaska and Apoloshka, and was awfully glad, like a lover. Everything seemed to grow bright. Yes, the means to gain true happiness in life is, without any rules, to throw out from oneself in all directions like a spider an adhesive web of love, and to catch in it all that comes : an old woman, a child, a girl, or a policeman.

Got up at nine. Went to gymnastics. It’s dull without friends. Read the Naval Miscellany .* I should like to slap Pagodin’s face. Contemptible flattery flavoured with Slavophilism A new trick. All these Moscow festivities — what an un-Russian feature they are. Levich said he had reported to the Minister, but all the same his reply was evasive. I shall write the project all the same. Dined at K6korev’s.fi Cabbage-soup, other national dishes, and champagne, with Russian - shaped salt-box of gold. Absurdity, lack of taste, and lack of clarity. Kdkorev's article is clever but ugly. He touches on all the economic wounds superficially. Called on M. P. Nothing, nothing, silence ! The Turgenevs were out. Spent the evening again at my Aunt’s. Old Miltseva again there.

Got up at about ten. Wrote to Vasenka Perfilev. Davydov came. Finished with him. Timm has promised him, but I doubt whether I sl^all be able to. At one, the children came and Kutler, seven in all. We went to Ekaterinhof in boats. It was pleasant, but I got very tired. Found M. S. and M. at Donan's half-way through their dinner We went to Pavlovsk. Disgusting ! Girls, silly music, girls, an artificial nightingale, girls, heat, cigarette smoke, girls, vodka, cheese, wild shrieks, girls, girls, girls ! Everybody trying to pretend they are jolly and that the girls pleased them, but unsuccessfully. In the train I was enraged by some tipsy, boisterous, German civilians who were trying to carouse like officers.

Got up late, put my papers in order, wrote to Turgenev. Anna Nikolaevna called. Went to see Fet, with him to the Bourse, and from there to dine at Dusseau’s with Makarov, Meshch^rski, Gorbunov, and Dolgorukov. From there to the theatre. A fine woman beside me. Korolev, the author of The Career , seems to be a brilliant mediocrity. From there to Dusseau’ ttf a ball, Dolgorukov, Meshch^rski, Gorbunov, and I. Three of the girls were not bad. Insipid. Ogardv.* Nearly had a quarrel with him. Morning in the Marina wood. Un- fortunate Lanskoy ! Spent some fifty rubles. Never miss opportunities of enjoying yourself, and never seek them. I promise myself for ever — never to enter a cabaret or a b. . . . Got up at three to-day. Korolev came, Gorbunov, and Dolgorukov. The first is no fool and a nice fellow. I took him to dine at Nekrasov's. He is no good but I begin to like him. From there I went to the Staff. Shall receive my discharge to-morrow. L. confused me at the Bltfdovs’ by her expression of attachment. I am afraid it prevents my noticing much that is bad in her ; we said good-bye. Spent a pleasant evening at my Aunt’s and then called in at Dusseau’s# and found myself at supper with S. and others, and a girl. My foot shall never, never step inside a public place, except a concert or a theatre. To-morrow if I do not receive my discharge, from morning onwards write notes to Kraevski and Timm, and continue Pavlovsk or The Cossacks , dine with Nekrasov, and spend the evening at home.

Rose late. Fet and Truson came. The latter said delightfully, that the second Hussar is described without love. Went to Konstantinov, dined at Nekrasov’s : they flattered me very much. Played cards. Packed at home. Went to Dusseau’s, where I did not find it tedious with Strogonov. Good-natured. An honest viveur — an extremely rare type. Get up early to-morrow, settle about the lodgings. Leave.

Gorbunov, Dolgorukov, Pratz, and Kolbasin junior, came in the morning. I let the latter have the publication of Childhood and Boyhood for a ten per cent royalty. Left at noon. Was dull on the way. First with Lanskoy and then with some Austrian diplomat. Read A Superfluous Man* Awfully affected, coquet- tishly clever and playful.

Arrived at ten and went straight to the Perfilevs’. Two fat lumps ! All the same Vasenka is good-looking and highly so. Went to dine with the old Perfilevs. Varenka was not there, but still it was not dull. A card-player, some sort of a jaundiced Armenian, turned up with a Vladimir Order round his neck and a pretty wife, n<£e Countess Panin. A hackneyed type and situation in books, but one I happened to meet for the first time. After dinner went to Kuntsevo. Found the house : very charming, books, cigars, a tumbler misty with the ice thawing in it. Druzhfnin was the first I met in the garden, then Bdtkin, * in the evening Grigoryev8 came, and we talked very pleasantly till midnight. Some say that the Hussars is being decried, others, mostly literary men, that it is being praised.