31st August. This morning we had a visit from a 30-year-old Romanian who had castrated himself at the age of 18 after reading The Kreutzer Sonata.* He then took to working on his land—just 19 acres—and was terribly disillusioned today to see that Tolstoy writes one thing but lives in luxury. He questioned everyone, seeking an explanation of this contradiction. He was obviously very hurt, and said he wanted to cry, and kept repeating, “My God, my God! How can this be? What shall I tell them at home?” Then a rich deaf mute arrived from Kiev with his friend, a barber, especially to make Tolstoy’s acquaintance. Goldenweiser came and played chess with L.N.
2nd September. Lev Nikolaevich’s preparations to visit Chertkov are very painful for me. I corrected the proofs of Maude’s English biography of him, and drew some illustrations. Our visitors today were the Nikolaevs, Goldenweiser, Kalachyov, the deaf mute and some cinematographers from Paris.*