R. again has a restless night; he dreamed at first that his first wife mocked him, that he then struck her and she poisoned herself, and that some drops of the poison fell on him; then that he was jealous of Lenbach on my account, and Mimi Schl. tried to console him! —
I write to Peter Cornelius’s poor widow. — R. works, says he is preparing his plan as if for a battle, advancing now with these forces, now with those. If the gods grant him tranquillity, he will need another month to finish it. “Completed the wondrous work!” — Tears fill my eyes at the thought. —
In the evening the children play us an improvised comedy, in which Boni—usually somewhat noncommittal—distinguishes herself with her ideas and her liveliness. We then read the Battle of Spichern, after I received yet another sad impression of Daniella’s roughness and ungracious manner toward her sisters.
Hans has received my letter.