Wednesday, July 26:
A portrait of poor Serov has been sent to us. R. receives a letter from Dr. Kafka in Vienna, undertaking to raise 100,000 florins in Vienna. During the night I was filled with fears, sad unto death, fearful for R., fearful for the children and their future, fearful for Hans himself; comfort only in complete resignation in all things and the firm resolve to do my duty at all times.
R. is still indisposed and in consequence despondent, but always divinely good to me. In the evening Carlyle, about which R. says that one must read it like a book called “Memoirs of a Grandfather” which one might have in manuscript.
I arrange R.’s papers and come upon all sorts of things, among them letters to R. from his sister Rosalie, which surprise R. very much; he says he had not known how affectionate people had once been toward him. He then speaks of the dreariness, the ridiculous dreariness, of his marriage.