Monday, April 28:
My father arrives on the early train at 5 o’clock. He looks well, and the first few moments are spent in a sort of rueful cheerfulness. But in the afternoon he touches on matters that pain me: whether I intend to continue bringing up the children myself, Hans had spoken bitterly about them, and so on. Then about Princess Wittgenstein, who maintains that we were married a second time in Bayreuth, that our first wedding in a chapel at Tribschen had not been valid, and that it was for this reason we had decided on conversion, and similar absurdities!
In the evening with my father at the Brockhaus house, quite a pleasant evening; my father, a person apart, looks wonderful, but he hardly speaks. The sight of him fills me with melancholy; so divided our paths, so close our hearts! Packed late in the evening.
R. talked at length today with Fritzsch about the new literary magazine; Prof. Nietzsche is preparing an essay attacking D. Strauss, and he has recommended to Fritzsch a theological work by Prof. Overbeck, which no publisher is willing to take on because of its frankness. The excellent music dealer is in a curious situation. R. says that if the thing is carried through with consistency it could be very significant.