Thursday, January 19:
R. had a good night, but he is much annoyed by the exorbitant demands of our landlord, and I notice it in the irritable way he talks about Marc Aurèle at lunch, in the assumption that I harbor an unjustified admiration for this emperor. He talks with much emotion of the martyrdom of Saint Blandine. When mention is made of someone who wishes to see him, he tells me that the thought of any new acquaintances upsets him. At 12 o’clock he goes for a walk with the children in the English Gardens, and in the afternoon we visit the Aumale gardens, which are quite splendid and which please R., too, even if his mood is still irritable.
Seeing oranges growing beside a rose, he says, “How vulgar they seem beside that blossom!” In the evening Count Tasca calls on us to arrange for tomorrow the outing to Bagheria which R. wanted to make today. We discuss everything, then R. plays the Kaisermarsch with Rub. as a piano duet, but finds it very exhausting. As the evening ends, he tells me of the alliance between the Liberals and the Center party against Bismarck!
A letter from the publishers [Breitkopf &] Härtel announces that Lohengrin is at last to be engraved, also a new edition of Tristan. R. considers whether he should make some simplifications in this, but then abandons the idea.