Had to receive many visitors; in the afternoon shaken to my very core by a letter from my father, enclosing one from Hans; Hans complains of the overexcited state of his nerves, he lost both his memory and his strength, his cure in Salzungen was a failure, dismal symptoms of overexertion! … I struggle against low spirits and stifle my tears as best I can.
In the afternoon visit from a Herr v. Horn[i], a writer, born in Bayreuth, companion of Prince Friedrich Karl and a reporter during the war; he talks about the Emperor and his true piety, says also that he wrote his letter to the Pope himself; he also mentions Bismarck’s overwrought nerves and tremendous irritability.
In the evening Frl. Brandt, musically very good and accomplished, but very unattractive, a Viennese child of the people, without any culture.
[i] Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Horn (1847 – 1923) at this time at the Bavarian War Academy in Munich, later Bavarian Minister of War.