Thursday, May 26:
A good night for R. A nice speech to him from the vegetarians. A pleasant letter from the King. Then a talk with Herr Neumann, in which R. learns that 10,000 marks have been deducted from the receipts for seats for the press.
R. drives with the children to the zoological gardens and then visits the Countess par excellence with them. Lusch visits a Frau Overbeck and there hears strange things about her father, which upset her. In the evening to Die Walküre, the Count in a hat borrowed from Jouk., which amuses us greatly. The performance both good and bad, Frau Hofmeister effective as Sieglinde, Frau Vogl less so as Brünnhilde, many crass errors of production which upset R., and when, afterward, he has to stand in the middle of a gaping crowd awaiting our carriages, he loses patience entirely.
Concern for Lusch, the great and sublime effect of the work on me, and R.'s mood of vexation form a complicated whole to which my humor cannot measure up, and I wake up on