Yesterday I returned home from Dresden; I have kept no diary of my stay there, since R. was unable to accompany me.
I went to see a dentist, and also to visit the Luisenstift. It made a good impression on me, and I think I shall do well to send the girls there for a few years. On Thursday the 22nd, I left Leipzig at 6 o’clock with the two girls, having spent the evening there in the company of Frau v. Meyendorff; at 12 R. met me at Neumarkt with the three children. He had written to me every day, yet how much we still had to say to each other on our reunion! He was unwilling to receive anyone during my absence: “They should know what it means when you are at home.”
At home he showed me the book about the war which he has been studying; it throws a curious light on the Crown Prince, who, it seems, was unwilling to have a battle waged without him and who kept General Hartmann waiting. The Battle of Weissenburg also seems to R. to have been a scene of quite unnecessary slaughter. — In the evening we drink to my father’s birthday, and then go early to bed. —
Today R. is well and cheerful; he says, “When you are away, the hook is missing on which I hang, and then I fall down in a heap.” The many interruptions make it difficult for R. to work; I write to Hans, informing him of my plan to send the children to the boarding school.
After lunch we try to find a place for the little Dürer table. While R. goes off for a rest, I begin reading Prof. Nietzsche’s paper Schopenhauer as “Educator, which R. has already read and which absorbs us to the highest degree. In the evening I read some of it out loud to R.