Tuesday, September 13:
Bills to pay! And a final appointment with Dr. Jenkins for R., after which he goes for a glass of beer with Fidi and shows him the Klepperbein house, in which he spent so much time as a child. (He also showed me the apothecary’s shop from which his mother received a bill for “mixed teas for little Richard.”)
Departure at 2 o’clock; the Hartmanns at the station. When R. jokes with Frau H. about her showing so much feeling for a conductor, she replies that she does not bother herself with such insignificant people, but with Wagner, Shakespeare, Beethoven. He says, “Oh, we two are not fit to tie Shakespeare’s or Beethoven’s shoelaces.” And when she expresses delight over his “we,” R. says, “Enthusiasm makes equals of us all.”
We arrive in Leipzig at 6 o’clock, Herr Neumann with the conductor Seidl at the station. R. calls the former “a rose exuding earnestness.” He goes for a drive with the children, and then we go to the theater, where Israel again predominates. Curious voices, above all. Benedix’s play Der Vetter seems rather clumsy.