Thursday, February 7:
R. tells me he has started work again; I helped him to it! A little gift (a tablecloth with roses), which I presented to him to celebrate the conclusion of the first act, has given him pleasure. Better than anyone else he can take delight in the smallest of things. Klingsor will be very brutal, he says, "brooding, as you can imagine." He has also got Kundry's cry.
In the afternoon a conference with Feustel about the contract with Munich, in which a few points will have to be changed. Arrival of the Bayreuther Blätter, orthopedic consultation with Frau Dr. Herz, then the Pope dying, the Russians in Constantinople, and trouble brewing in France, Gambetta and Roscher accusing each other of the disaster of 1870! Quite a lot for Saint Richard's Day, but in Wahnfried all is peace and happiness. R. is delighted with the Idyll, he says again that it is his favorite composition, and he sends it to my father "with Cosima's permission."