Saturday, September 14:
R. did not have a good night, but he works.
Friend Standhartner yesterday announced a visit; he is coming from the international exposition in Paris, and since he wrote in French, R. says, “Il s’est exposé lui-même comme ami de Wagner, et en cette qualité il était en effet assez exposé là-bas” [“He has exposed himself as a friend of Wagner, and in that capacity was truly exposed there”]. As always when he jokes in French, he makes use of the best and most original of expressions.
Over our afternoon coffee we come to talk of the election of women to Parliament, and R. promises to read us in the evening C. Frantz’s chapter on this question; he does so, and we are all astonished by the fine, clear language, the depth and originality of the thinking. Then R. recalls his essay “A Happy Evening,” the joyousness of the last movement of the Seventh Symphony having suddenly come so clearly into his mind!