Thursday, December 23:
While gilding my apples I am given a letter from Counselor Bucher. It gave me much joy; I thought he belonged among that group of former friends who paid attention to the malicious things said about me. Now he has written in a friendly tone and with no other motive than to greet me on my birthday; since I think highly of him, I found this sign of life from him extremely welcome.
In the evening I decorated the tree just as finely as I could. R. in cheerful mood as I did so. During the day I had a moment of distress. R.’s sister Cäcilie sent him the papers for which I had asked; she sends no greeting to me and writes in an obtuse and ugly manner. That hurt me; it would have been so much better if R.’s sister had felt for me.