R. still occupied with his library, I have all sorts of things to do in the house and with Lusch*.
In the afternoon looking over the accounts, always a worry to me. In the evening the musicians, we settle ourselves on the stairs. “The Decameron**,” R. says to me and adds, “I am sorry I cannot provide you with a better Decameron.” —
Tropical heat. R. plays us the romance from Isouard’s*** Joconde, “But always one returns to one’s first loves.****” “Yes,” he says, “many tender things have been said on this earth and forgotten.”
* Lusch: Daniella von Bülow (1860 – 1940), daughter of Cosima and Hans von Bülow.
** Il Decamerone (Ten-Day-Oeuvre) Collection of 100 Novellas of Giovanni Boccaccio (10 x 10 Novellas).
*** Nicoló Isouard (1775 – 1818), also Nocoló de Malte, maltese composer of the opera „Joconde ou Les Coureurs d’aventures“. Opera comique, 1814.“
**** “but you always come back to your first loves”