Monday, August 8:
R. is still laughing over his serenade and Stein’s excuse for not singing, that Jouk. has such a good voice. Nice weather; R. works; at lunch Humperdinck’s case is much pondered. R. declares that all these prize-winnings are very mysterious, the Westphalians altogether curious people, and when he talks of “veal-like malice” we all laugh heartily.
In the afternoon R. signs the contract with Herr Francke and in so doing again shows his great grasp of business. In the evening, much with Ernst von Weber about the antivivisection movement: the Crown Princess attended an experiment carried out by Herr Du Bois-Reymond and declared herself to be thoroughly satisfied. Then much about colonization and travel; he whets R.’s appetite for Madeira and for Zante. Steingraber called in the afternoon to receive R.’s commission for the construction of the “bell piano.”