Wednesday, March 15:
R. had a good night. He reads the forewords in his collected writings, also Die Kapitulation, and expresses his astonishment over the lack of humor in Germany; people there have shown no understanding at all for his joke. “Genius demands the right audience,” he says, recalling the Attic people.
Today I am much preoccupied with the news, conveyed to me by Count Tasca, that Count Gravina is asking for Boni’s hand. I tell R. first; then together we tell Boni, who appears very surprised. R. and I then dine with the Grand Duke’s heir and family, the young Grand Duke Konstantin also being present. With all his usual splendid frankness R. talks of the Russian need to capture Constantinople. The Grand Duke’s heir continues to please R. greatly, but the Russian aristocrats are distasteful to him; he finds them horribly trivial, with a certain sort of “robber mentality.” He also feels that the noble lady should have given her arm to him and not to her cousin, with whom she also should not have spoken Russian now and again.
He talks to the Grand Duke’s heir about Fidi’s education, and he tells me afterward how it felt to be talking in this way about a son! In the evening some friends come over, and Rub. plays Op. 111; R. is not satisfied with it, and I am unfortunately quite distracted.