Wednesday, May 19:
R. had a better night, though he was up once and wrote down an idea for his article. At lunch he is much more cheerful, and he himself says, "Wit has returned: the Earth takes back her child." The whole company has to laugh heartily when he says, "It would be my greatest triumph if I were to make you all laugh, in my final hour."
We reflect gladly that in the biography we now have only 4 more years to write down, and R. earnestly resolves to write these, so as to throw light on our personal destinies. In the evening he reads to us the episode of the marionettes in Don Quixote, in which the figure of the Showman particularly fascinates and pleases us.
Before that he rehearsed the choruses from Parsifal with the children, already begun yesterday, so lovely, so touching; his dear hand strews blessings over them with every movement indicating rhythm and stress. Much rehearsal necessary, and intertwined with it the delight of the children, every moment an outburst of laughter. R. says, "Now the children are unhappy again!"