Tuesday, August 24:
Letter from Marie Muchanoff; she is going to Munich, where she will meet my father. She asks whether I would not see him. This question leads to a conversation with R. from which I learn that he has been forced by a newspaper report to the conclusion that my father dissuaded Hans from his resolve to get a divorce from me.
R. is now writing to Marie Muchanoff and giving her an outline of the whole situation, in the hope that she will show this to my father and perhaps cause him to reverse his unfortunate attitude. I also write her a few lines and send her Hans’s last letter to me.
In the afternoon a visit from Count Bassenheim; while on the Rigi he had seen Prince Georg of Prussia, who had spoken of me a lot. Curious how surprised I am by every friendly word said about me!
In the evening, after reading Grimm’s fairy tales to the children, I receive a telegram from Hermine: “Old lady at home, humiliating reception, turned away from the house.”
Thus does the good lady avenge herself for the 10 years in which I treated her in such a way that R. was firmly convinced that she did and must love me, and was struck dumb when I once told him, “The woman is just waiting for an opportunity to do me harm.” But that she should treat poor Hermine so badly!
I write to Anna, so that she can show my remarks to Hans, who may perhaps be told God knows what by his mother. I comfort Hermine with a few words.