Friday, July 15:
In the morning I hear the “Morgentraumdeutweise”; shortly afterward R. comes to me saying that Karl Klindworth is here, in fact with Richter, who, scarcely arrived below, has come up again. We prepare to take leave of the heights. Klindworth has seen Hans in Berlin. He says Hans is well and very contented with his stay in Florence; he is now planning a journey to America. If I am truly to be given, on top of all else, the consolation of knowing that things are well with Hans, then, dear God, there will never have been a happier woman than I!
K. Kl[indworth] saw Die Walküre in Munich and says it made an overwhelming impression on him; he also tells me that my father is traveling with a bevy of acquaintances to see Die Walküre, and is going on to the Passion play in Oberammergau. How different this life from our own, how turned outward, avid for distraction, how wide the gap between us!
Return home via Alpnach in very fine weather; merry greetings, good children! Fidi looks pale; Loldi had seen the convicts’ stable (the prison); Eva sleepy. In the newspapers, however, the proclamation of the infallibility dogma and war! The arrogant and wicked French are not content with the withdrawal of the Prince of Hohenzollern, they are demanding through their envoy Benedetti a promise from the King of Prussia that he will never give his approval to the acceptance of the Spanish crown by any Prussian prince. The King quite rightly refuses to receive the envoy. So now they are arming! This news upsets us greatly.