Wednesday, April 19:
R. had a good night, and it is a glorious day! I set out on my searches, and R. goes on his own to the Belle Arti, says he discovered me there in the first room: others might not recognize me in it, but this is how I look when I have been weeping. He is still enchanted with Venice.
When I return home, I find on my desk his reply to Herr Forster, who has deployed all of what R. calls his “play actor’s” eloquence in an effort to persuade R. to go to London, holding out the prospect of an invitation from the Duke of Edinburgh - showing, in short, his complete ignorance of R.’s character. R. replies that it is very unfortunate that there is so much lying in the world, for no truthful man will be believed when he says that his health does not permit him to go. R. and I visit the Palazzo Morosini, look at Loredano, go inside S. Marco, stop at a jeweler’s, where R. buys a necklace for Boni, having given fans to Loldi and Eva.
Our supper is overshadowed by the news that Prince Scalea’s young son, whom Gravina discovered lying mortally ill and neglected in an institution in Naples, is being left there abandoned by his parents, in spite of Grav.’s urgent entreaties to be allowed to bring him home! R. wants to adopt the boy, at all costs to rescue him from the hated institution, but then, realizing his powerlessness, he relapses into melancholy and inveighs indignantly against these families. With the children we go to the Goldoni Theater and see Scribe’s Bataille des dames. The weak and wordy exposition annoys R.; he wants action, but he is interested in the way the story is developed.