Tuesday, February 18:
R. does not sleep a wink all night; there are now and again times which it seems impossible for one ever to survive! Our cook has disappeared; the servants think she has thrown herself into the river! A violent ring on the doorbell, caused by no visible hand, gives the servants the idea that we are being told of her death! Blandine is in much pain (rheumatism). Letter from my father (R. recently returned home very vexed by the news that he is giving a concert for R. Franz in Pest).
I do not know what now reminds me that Herman Grimm calls Raphael a “gentleman,” by which he is translating “un gentil uomo” in a highly modern manner: this makes us laugh a lot. In the evening we read the Volsunga Saga and are particularly overwhelmed by the scene between Briinnhilde and Sigurd (before his death). “It is not the whole that matters,” says R., “but the individual descriptions.” He also tells me that this particular scene had previously made such an impression on him, since it is the only one that throws light on the earlier relationship between Siegfried and Briinnhilde. Unfortunately we have to abandon these regions for reality; we go off to bed with great reluctance and hear Boni whimpering! (Letter from Marie Schl.)