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Vienna, July 10, 1915 IX., Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
I am sorry that your letter of today doesn't contain better news and that you won't be coming to Vienna in the near future. I can't visit you either, since these last few weeks have become the busiest of the year. So I can only promise when the September restlessness comes over me to surface also in Pápa. But in these times, promises count for less than they usually do.
The little piece of war news about your regiment is gruesome, even though one must be prepared for such cases. If this war lasts another year, which is probable, no one would actually be left who participated in its beginning. During the night of the 8th/9th of this month I had a prophetic dream, which very clearly had as its content the deaths of my sons, Martin first. I was able to clarify very well the mechanism and occasion for the dream; it is a bold challenge to the occult powers after reading a book that demanded piety from me, of all people. It was also completely free of mourning, and I hope now to be right in the face of all evil spirits. The latest news from Martin (today) dates only from July 1. The day after (after the dream) I read that the good boy who saved Martin from freezing to death on the Schneeberg that day with the sacrifice of a few toes has now been killed himself.
Our intentions stand firm. We will leave on the evening of the 17th or the morning of the 18th for Karlsbad, from where you will immediately find out my address. Anna, after taking her examination to be an elementary school teacher and signing a contract which makes her an instructor at her own school (Fräulein Goldmann),1 has gone to Ischl to her grandmother and aunts. On the same day Oli became an engineer, and for the time being is helping out at his uncle's office,2 but is negotiating with his previous firm for a position at a railway construction site in the Steiermark and could go there at the end of the month. So, the lot of old age, loneliness, is clearly in