Thursday, February 27:
Boni has had a relapse! I put her to bed and am very depressed. Letter from London, saying that the concert there has brought no profit on account of the enormous costs, but it was a big success. Strange letter from a physician in Jena who claims to have heard of an illness of the King’s which he wishes to cure. R. believes this is the explanation of the King’s shyness, and he finds the physician’s letter sensible, but how to get it to the King, when all the people around him are deceitful and evil?
The first part of the third volume is now in print. Reading it, I come upon the passage concerning Elective Affinities, and I admit to R. that I have always been touched by Charlotte herself and the captain, too, whereupon he grows heated and says: “No, I read like a child and am passionately on the side of Ottilie and Eduard; Charlotte’s resignation and the way she after all goes on living, possibly receives visitors, and so on, I find this worthless, indeed disgusting. You had never been in love when you read the book, otherwise you could have had no sympathy for Charlotte; I had at least an aptitude for love.” The conversation leads us to other parts of the biography, the trip with my father and Herwegh, when these two constantly spoke about personal things in French and R. felt excluded. I say it was inconsiderate of them to have spoken French in front of him, whereupon R. reproaches me for my French connections, which always make him feel excluded; everything he hates is contained in this language, trivialities, nothing but gossip. Once on this evil path, he recalls my father’s stay here and complains about it. This reduces me to an ever-deeper silence; when and how can I make up for this again? Today the management committee met, Feustel is said to have been splendid again, meticulous, thoroughly versed in all the business aspects, and magnanimous. A third of the money, 100,000 thalers, has now arrived - will the other 200,000 materialize?