Thursday, April 18:
R. is not well. He looks through his pencil sketches, those splendid things! When will he find peace to complete the work? ...
In the afternoon he goes to see Herr Am Rhyn and is glad to find him in a gentlemanly mood, so that our departure will take place without unpleasant disputes. We conversed in the evening, matters melancholy, pleasant, and sweet. Family lunch without Fidi, who sleeps too much.
R. sang Elsa’s beginning to the duet in the third act of Lohengrin. “That is German,” he says, “without passion, but deeply felt and warm. He has come from where she longs to go, but in the encounter their hearts must break.”