Monday, October 17:
R. had a better night than I dared hope for. I was awakened by the cock, and quite distinctly, after waking up, I heard it call "Richard Wagner" three times. The billiard table arrives; R. finds it already set up when he comes downstairs, and he is much taken with it, going back after every page to practice with the cues. He also comes upstairs to me, commiserating with me for having such a restless husband! Then he sends the children to tell me that he is in the garden. He says that Neumann seems to him thoroughly eudaemonic; to him he now owes his highest income from the theater. He said that Berlin would bring in about 900 marks, and true enough, that is how it happened. The family gathers around the billiard table before and after lunch. Over coffee R. says very gaily, "All I want is to know the target which has been set me, so that I don't do too much - it is dreadful to think of doing too much."
Fidi's museum, to which he gains access through the window, since I keep the room locked, amuses R. greatly. The inspector from Leipzig is also a pleasing arrival, since he has found all the scenery in the best of condition. So we can give thanks for this day. R. ends it by reading Frauentreue from the Gesamtabenteuer, or rather from its very good table of contents; we are greatly touched by its great respectability, indeed almost petit-bourgeois quality, for all its boldness. In the husband R. sees his King Marke.
Late in the evening, just before we part, R. says, "How can one even speak of human beings, when there are still slaves among us?" and he enlarges upon this theme.