The hotel was one of those sumptuous and comfortable structures which
are to be found all over Switzerland, with the domestic in a dress
coat, whose presence gives you a shock of disappointment when he
receives you with a smile, at the moment when you reach a summit which
you had imagined to be almost inaccessible. The view was, undoubtedly,
very wonderful, since we had been obliged to mount so high in order
to enjoy it, but I am ashamed to say that I have not retained any
memory of it. The Master was exuberantly gay: again he found old
acquaintances, old servants, among the retainers of the hotel, with
whom he joked familiarly, which annoyed Madam Cosima very much, as she
could have wished him to be more reserved, more Olympian.
In the corner that had been selected for us in the immense
dining-room, the dinner, lubricated with champagne, was hilarious and
particularly delicious. In honour of Wagner, the proprietress of the
hotel, whose outline insistently suggested the fairy Carabosse, had
herself superintended its preparation. We prolonged it until a late
hour, as it was the last day of the excursion: on the following day
we should have to descend again, to take the steamboat and return to
Lucerne.
It was only after the return that Wagner confessed that he had been
indisposed all through the journey; but he had taken great care not to
let us perceive it, in order not to spoil our pleasure.