Monday, December 11:
R. had a good night; we discuss the party yesterday, and when R. compares the painter Passini to the casing of a Black Forest clock, I have to laugh so much that I at once tell the children why. Also his various replies — for example, to a painter who introduced himself, “Well, there are enough painters here,” and to the Austrian consul, “If I have any big business deals, I shall come to you” — make us laugh, and they also show me the pleasure he feels now whenever he comes into contact with people. At lunch he also very comically expresses his pleasure in the consul’s young son, who played Fabrice so soberly that we had to laugh heartily.
Before lunch R. and I took a ride to the square, through the Merceria on foot as far as the Rialto, with enjoyment in spite of the weather! In the afternoon R. receives Count Contin, founder and president of the Conservatoire. R. describes correctness of tempo as the alpha and omega of what should be taught. (My father is very, very unwell, has to take to his bed!) In the evening R. shows me the picture in the I. Zeitung of Frl. Brandt as Lea in Die Makkabäer; he wonders how the audience can put up with something as horrible as this Jewish stuff on the stage! We play whist, and to end the evening, R. reads to me from Tolstoy’s novel the episodes of the innocent man condemned to death and the poor dog howling when its master, the soldier, is shot dead!