Friday, February 17:
R. had a restless night, and he feels ill in the morning. I wonder whether my small birthday greetings will please him a little, with two much-corrected poems by Cosima enclosed in honor of Eva’s fifteenth birthday.
At lunch, before he finds them, he is in a friendly mood, and afterward he is kind toward my efforts to celebrate the day. He drives to town in the afternoon and buys a silver necklace for Eva. He is now reading German history; yesterday he spoke at length about fashion during the Thirty Years’ War, saying how absurd it was - people who dressed like that were not, to his mind, human beings.
Today he talked about the bad behavior of the German princes at the time of Napoleon, how poorly Prussia was treated; he says that, if one considers that, one can understand and respect Bismarck. To ensure a good night’s rest he takes a bath, while the girls go off to a ball under Count Tasca’s protection.