Wednesday, October 2:
R. had a very bad night, has congestion and something much like hallucinations; he cannot remember the name of our governess, mentioned by Fidi. The soft air, the new house, the smelly stoves, perhaps too-strong coffee after his bad night: all this has caused it. Great sorrow for me!
Yesterday still we were feeling too happy at having discovered each other and come together, and now I am again beset by this indescribable worry!
When yesterday I read to R. the scene between N. III and Empress Charlotte, he said, “One would think that if some clever fellow put this on the stage, it would have a tremendously powerful effect, and yet it is not so: such horrible catastrophes lack real tragedy, for scepters and crowns, which it is all about, are not things of eternal value, and, whatever misfortunes a person might suffer on their account, fundamentally this leaves us cold.”
Uncomfortable lunch, since we do not know how to control the heating in this new house. After lunch the doctor comes to examine R. and prescribes a new diet: no coffee, no sausage, etc.; a roast dish in the evening, long walks. We start on it at once, and, after signing the papers regarding the conversion of the children to Protestantism at the lawyer’s, we go for a long walk in the meadows beside the river Main. Mild air, too mild, even: it does not agree with R.
In the evening I read him some anecdotes from Frederick’s life, which amuse us greatly.