Friday, August 25:
Preparations! At 11:30 the civil marriage ceremony at Wahnfried; around 11 o’clock the town councilors bring Blandine a pretty table centerpiece. The mayor’s speech very dignified; at 12:30 lunch, 27 people at table. R. makes the first speech, turns to Blandine, recalling the poem she recited to him on May 22; he speaks of the crises of his life and describes that which led him to me as the crisis of salvation, remarks how lovely it is for him in this life of crises to see something so natural and so simple as the relationship between her and Biagino; then he comes to the King and calls him the good guardian angel of our lives! Then Count Schleinitz toasts the Gravina family in a charming speech in which he recalls a saying of Prince Castelcicala. Whereupon the mayor proposes the health of Count and Countess Schleinitz, and the minister rises once more to toast the geniuses of the family in the most graceful and at the same time moving way.
At 4 o’clock we drive to the theater, where Mar. Brandt plays Kundry. In the intermissions there is a fireworks display in honor of the day, and on our return home electrical illuminations.