Lusch’s birthday, all kinds of little provisions to be made, between the Hoffmann capers! He has been persuaded to renounce his participation, and the management committee is to pay him 600 thalers in compensation for his inactivity during the past months! —
After lunch R. told us tales of his childhood and how he often stole things; strangely enough, no one in his family had ever guessed; he had discovered how to gain access to his sister Rosalie’s money box and had helped himself to many four-groschen pieces; but when his imagination had begun to work, he had been ashamed of himself and had developed a disgust for stealing, though he had never been punished for it. How would it be, however, in the case of children whose imaginations were not so strongly active? Or perhaps would the urge, the craving for pleasure, also be less violent? … {A repeated entry omitted.}
In the afternoon Frau Hoffmann and her brother visit me, and we part in a friendly manner, she telling me that my husband’s letter had worked like balm on her husband.
In the evening went through the scene between Hamlet and his mother line by line and word by word, as if we had not known it before. — Played charades at the children’s party. News that Hans is recovering.