Wednesday, April 12:
R. had a restless night, and we learn that the ship we were counting on has no room for us, since the ex-Khedive, turned away from Alexandria with his wives, has taken it over. R. says he wishes to see the ship! I finish Philoctetes with the children, while R. reads the book of short stories, maintaining his interest in it to the end, and saying in its praise that the Russian people still provide a writer with naive subjects, whereas French books have only repulsive things to offer. In the afternoon R. and I set out on a drive to the temple of Neptune; the sea is showing the most remarkable colors, mauve and green, and the shores are beautiful. But rain forces us to turn back. Issues of the Fliegende Blätter, discovered in the hotel, keep R. amused, and I tell him of a report in the Polnische Zeitung about a German in Strassburg who has suggested the monopolization of electricity, since a nation can only assume control of an industry with advantage when it is in its initial stages, not once it is already flourishing. R. remarks that this is a peculiar idea and asks why we must always imitate what other nations have done a long time before us. In the evening we play whist, and since I feel certain that R. prefers to be alone with me when he is feeling somewhat run down, and also that he does not care for all the Italian and French, even though we two always speak German, I soon send the children away, and we chat together, about Philoctetes, about Faust.