Wednesday, September 18:
Still at the Fantaisie. Unfortunately R. had a very bad night. A word he let fall yesterday cast a complete mantle of grief over my spirits: he said he believed there was something wrong with his heart! After our walk we had supper at Donnweyer's, the Goldener Pfau in Eckersdorf; did something he ate there perhaps disagree with him?
He corrects his manuscript. I go into the park with the children, and we take a walk of almost four hours with Fidi, the children very merry, Fidi incredibly lively, with not a sign of tiredness, I taking leave in my heart of the trees I have come so much to love.
We return to find R. looking unwell, and after lunch he becomes ill-humored. We drive into town in deep silence, and as we are passing the cemetery, R. points a finger toward it.
The house still very behindhand; the Stockers have packed things immensely unskillfully, half of them, the most necessary, still missing. On top of that, R. has a very unpleasant encounter with a Herr Kastner, who had been recommended to him as a copyist by Herr Lassen in Weimar, the conductor with whom we once had a bad experience, though we have forgotten the details. This Herr Kastner makes a very unpleasant impression on R., though he affects very great enthusiasm, would rather be a copyist here than a conductor anywhere else, etc.
Quiet journey home, quiet evening. Always moonlight, in joy as in sorrow.