As the two men went out together, Lanzky avowed his surprise—" Master," he began....
"You are the first to call me by that name," said Nietzsche with a smile. But he let the word pass, for he knew that he was a master.
"Master," continued Lanzky, "what a mistaken idea of you one gathers from your books; tell me ..."
"No, no, not to-day. You do not know Nice. I will do the honours, and show you this sea, these mountains, these walks.... Another day we shall talk, if you will."
By the time they returned it was six o'clock in the evening, and Lanzky had discovered how tireless a walker was his prophet.
They organised their life in common. At six o'clock in the morning it was Nietzsche's custom to make himself a cup of tea, which he took alone; towards eight Lanzky would knock at his door and ask how he had passed the night—Nietzsche often slept badly—and how he intended to employ his morning. Usually Nietzsche began the day by skimming the newspapers in a public reading hall; he then went to the shore, where Lanzky either joined him or respected his desire for a solitary walk. Both of them lunched in their pension. In the afternoon they walked out together. At night, Nietzsche wrote or Lanzky read to him aloud, often from some French book, such as the Letters of the Abbé Galiani, Stendhal's Le Rouge et le Noir, La Chartreuse, L'Armance.
To live courteously, yet withhold from ordinary gaze the secret of one's life, is a whole art in itself; and this art Nietzsche had mastered. Indeed, as regards the scheme of manners that he had composed for himself, this solitary of the table d'hôte was, deliberately, hypocritical and almost cunning. More than once Lanzky was nonplussed. One Sunday a young lady asked Nietzsche had he been to church.
"To-day, no," he replied courteously.
To Lanzky, who admired his prudence, he explained that every truth was not good for everyone. "If I had troubled that girl's mind," he added, "I should be horrified."
Occasionally it amused him to announce his future greatness. He would tell his neighbours during meals that in forty years' time he would be illustrious throughout Europe.