Sunday, February 27:
The night was really wretched, hardly any sleep at all. All the same, to my surprise, R. is cheerful at breakfast. He also works on his score, and when I come downstairs around lunchtime, he shows me a letter from the Société des Amis du Divorce [Society of the Friends of Divorce], appointing him an honorary member. At lunch a telegram arrives, reporting the success of Lohengrin in Naples. Our guest is Prof. Toussaint, who is giving Siegfried Latin lessons and who seems quite bright.
R. and I then go for a walk, and on our return he recalls Hans’s birthday in Munich (1868), how, after the dinner he had given us at Queroy’s, he wandered alone through the streets of Munich. In that moment he had a curious feeling of relief, he says, as though everything were in a complete state of suspension; it was like a pause. “It was people’s malice which restored us to life,” I say, and R.: “Yes, we should otherwise have gone under in silence.” R. works in the evening.
Then we have friends and music, the C Minor Symphony, played by Rub., and scenes from the 1st and 2nd acts of Siegfried, Siegfried and Mime, R. as Mime, Herr Jäger as Siegfried. During our walk R. was vexed about the mud, and he swears never again to spend a winter here!