252 Nietzsche
Nietzsche's awkward attempt at seduction nonetheless aroused the jeal-
ousy of Rèe, who was very eager to learn from Salomé exacdy what had
taken place on Monte Sacro. In a bantering but wary tone, he advised
Salomé that Nietzsche's next proposal would soon follow.
After being rejected for the second time, Nietzsche pinned all of his
hopes on their plans for a threesome. By this point, it could not have
escaped Nietzsche's attention that, the bond between them notwith-
standing, he was competing with his friend for Salomé. He recognized
that the time had come to give explicit reinforcement to their friendship:
"It would be impossible to be friends in a more wonderful way than we
are now," he wrote to Rée on May 24,1882. On the same day, he declared
to Salomé: "Rée is in every way a better friend than I am and am capa-
ble of being: pay attention to this difference!" (.Β 6,194£). Up until then,
Nietzsche and Salomé had been together for only a few days or hours at
a time, and he hoped to engineer a more sustained encounter alone with
her. Perhaps he would then be able to win her over for himself. But did
he even know what he wanted? He made a point of informing Peter
Gast that the "concept of a love affair" (B 6,222; July 13,1882) did not
apply in this case. In a draft of a letter to Malwida von Meysenbug, he
defined the relationship as a "fast friendship." He called Salomé a "truly
heroic soul," and expressed the wish "to gain a disciple in her, and if I
should not live too much longer, an heir and successor" (B 6,223£; July
13,1882). He also expressed this desire to Salomé herself. He had to dis-
pel her misgivings; she was not to think that he wanted her merely as a
secretary. He wrote to her: "It never occurred to me for a single moment
that you should "recite and write' for me; but I would gready wish to be
allowed to be your teacher. In the end, to be quite frank: 1 am looking for
people who could be my heirs; some of the things that preoccupy me
are not be to found in my books—and I am looking for the finest, most
fertile ground for them" (Β 6,211; June 26, 1882). Salomé did not nec-
essarily understand this letter to be a declaration of love—Nietzsche's
letters to her do not exacdy brim over with eroticism. But they do con-
tain sentences here and there that must have made it clear to her that he