Sunday, February 26:
R. was somewhat restless during the night, but in the morning he gaily tells me two dreams he had. The one: “I came home to Minna, who asked whether I had been with Frau Tichatschek; I told her yes, but it had been a party, whereupon she flew into a rage, saying to me as I left, ‘I am going to a hotel to sleep and tomorrow I shall go to a lawyer’; whereupon I said to myself, ‘This must stop,’ and she threw billiard balls after me.” The second: “From the street outside I looked up at your father’s room; there was a piano in the window; nimble as I was, I climbed up and played the Gretchen theme to your father as he returned; he looked up from the street in astonishment; so that he should not know who it was, I tried to go back through the window, but I stumbled, and then woke up.”
The mood today is very good. At 12 o’clock we stroll in the garden with Fidi, and in the afternoon I walk with R. to Camastra, where the red aloes are in flower. Though we often have to sit down, R. is not too worn out. Before that, the appearance of Dr. Berlin with some bottles of beer cheered R. greatly. The great event of the day is the completion of the tent on the terrace, and beneath it we enjoy our coffee and also the beer. The air is wonderful. R. humorously scolds the children, the many “useless girls” who constantly want to be entertained, and in the evening he hospitably receives our good landlords Tasca and Gangi and rails amusingly, if energetically, against Chevalier Guccia’s monocle, recommending that he wear an “honest” pair of spectacles. To the children he says, “Mama and I should by rights no longer be among you, but hovering on clouds up above.” At the conclusion of the evening he gets Rub. to play the Andante from Beethoven’s E-flat Major Quartet and the Scherzo (“butterfly!”) from another. And I thank the dear God who made me a present of this day!