Saturday, October 2:
It says in the newspaper that public demand for Das Rheingold has already begun to fall off! R. in the morning in melancholy mood, but recovered himself in the course of it so much that at midday he could tell me, “I have something for you, something has arrived,” and then he showed me the beginning of the Norns’ scene.
At lunch he suddenly says to me: “No one in this world has proved his courage to me except you. People should at least show respect for that.” I have to reply that I never possessed courage, but only love, which I still have. I know, alas, only too well how slight my strength is!
In the evening a letter from Claire; always only sad news of my mother. In the evening quartets with R.