Tuesday, May 23:
R. slept well, and when I tell him merrily that I am not at all tired, he calls me a “splendid fellow”! But we are not allowed to remain in this gay mood; he is vexed by the hotelkeeper Herr Albert, whose arrival prevents his looking at the hangings from the King, just received, which I have put up. Lusch’s slight irritation about Ferdi Jager’s success as Roldan brings us down a little from the heights; the weather is thundery, and so is the fact that all the young people have accepted an invitation to the Riedelsberg (R. wanted to visit the theater). But above all he is vexed by a letter from Seidl reporting on London.
However, he cheers up in the evening, and Herr Albert’s gift, a lantern attached to a pole, gives him the idea of marching through the garden “like glowworms,” surrounded by the children, and surprising our neighbors. Over coffee he spoke in high praise of the “Mephisto” movement in my father’s symphony and compared its style to Gobineau, who also, like Mephisto, is prepared to bow down before only one being.