Wednesday, January 31:
In the morning all kinds of reflections about the children. Concern, particularly for Lusch; Loldi is unwell. Then R. turns to the subject of the King of Bavaria, and we reflect on the twists of fate which have turned the relationship that appeared to solve everything into an unforeseeable source of bitterness!
I have given R. an article to read by M. Ducamp in the Revue des Deux Mondes, about Paris after Sedan, and he finds it interesting, though he observes that the author is wrong in assuming that Bismarck wanted a war with France and cleverly worked to bring it about; rather, he had foreseen the unavoidable necessity.
R. today dispatches his letter to Herr v. Stein; he comes to my room around noon and, hearing me cough ("barks instead of bells"), calls me "Phylax, who loyally on house and yard through many a night kept watchful guard" — and how happily I accept that name! He tells me what an indescribable impression the line Phylax came to die! made on him as a child. Since it is raining, R. does not go out today, and is quite glad about it. At lunch there is much joking with the girls; R. says he has already written to Schnappauf telling him to take them off to St. Gilgenberg! Herr Neumann cables that the performance in Venice will not take place — a relief! [Neumann's telegram from Brussels enclosed.]
R. was very pleased today that Hoffmann's valerian drops were such a help and allowed him to get on with his work by allaying his spasms. He is also very cheerful during his indoor walk in the afternoon; before that I hear him improvising — the blessed spirit of music is stirring in him — and to "Phylax" he is also overwhelmingly kind. In the evening we are visited by Herr v. Wolkoff and Frau Pinelli, by no means unwelcome to R., who ends the evening with "Harlequin, thou must perish!"