Vienna, March 4, 1919
IX., Berggasse 19

My very dear friends,

Finally I receive from you the so-long-awaited news that you have both carried through your union and have let a marriage lasting half a lifetime, which has proved to be indissoluble through all the pushes and pulls, be crowned by a civil ceremony! I know how much each of you has gone through in the process and how much [each] has finally renounced, but I remain firm in my conviction, which has grown in the course of a decade, that all happiness that awaits you both could only have been assured in this way, and that, despite your having left such a long time unused, it will turn out to be something irreplaceably beautiful after all. And since you have given me the honor of wishing me to be a witness to your union, I may speak personally and admit that often, when I had to think about putting things in order and saying good-bye, I was troubled by a concern