Thursday, August 25:
Ludwig Day! To church, but beforehand I set out roses and boxes for R. He is delighted, and when I return home, it is to a heavenly atmosphere. He takes the cover downstairs to show our friends, telling them that it is the children's work. Seidl has now joined them, and R. makes the merriest jokes about his relationship with Frau H. [Reicher-]Kindermann. The children are also in very cheerful spirits. R. works on his article, then, after spending some time with me in the garden [added later but referred back to this point: "with delight in Marke, whom he calls 'one of Nature's original themes, completely undecorated'"], he arranges for a drive.
In the evening Herr Winkelmann sings the "Forging Songs," and Seidl plays the "Entrance into the Temple of the Grail" to the delight of us all and to R.'s complete satisfaction. Today R. sings the melody from Die Meistersinger and says, "When a melody leaves no place to draw a breath, then it is beautiful." He talks of cuts he intends to make in Tristan, including the third act, since it goes beyond the permissible - and all through the day he keeps saying tenderly to me, "All that now remains for us is to die with each other - we shall die together!"
The photographs have turned out very well. At breakfast, I do not remember in what connection, I found myself repeating the line "Hurrying clouds, you aerial sailors." R. says, "Those were the things which made Schiller so popular - one felt there was no poetry but that."