Tuesday, October 11:
Concern for our troops in France, whose sufferings are being drawn out so long after all. Work with the children, drive, and little purchases for Loulou’s birthday. R. not quite well, but continuing the instrumentation. In the evening a conversation about sense of duty, right and wrong. “What I recognize,” says R., “is not the works but the belief—not to do what is right against my inclinations, but to do what is good from all my heart.” I reply that I am aware of a conflict, and I have often found it difficult to do the right thing. “But you could not have done otherwise,” he answers me.
We read the first canto of Don Juan together, and R. remarks that one is gripped not so much by the work as by the personality.