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Vienna, August 28, 1873
Dear Friend,
I must tell you that a short while ago—two hours ago precisely— my mother, Alexander, Rosa, and Dolfi arrived here, somewhat hot and tired but otherwise in excellent health and good spirits. I am giving you the news immediately because I have learned with pleasure and inner satisfaction how you sped their departure, packing, tying, labeling, and transporting their trunks. You have a thousand small talents, all serving the cause of friendship. I have resolved to sound everybody out about you and to take notice of everything they say about you, but am being kept almost too busy with it, for they decline Eduard in almost every sentence through all six cases: “der Eduard,” “des Eduard,” “dem Eduard,” “o der Eduard,” “von dem Eduard.”1 I must thank you cordially for the countless kindnesses you have shown them, so many that they now vie with one another in singing your praises to curious ears, as if touting your worth in the market. I am well aware that all these good deeds were by no means done for my sake, that I am merely a planet that owes the light of your favor to the proximity of a shining sun, but how often have we not been burdened with something we afterward found to be a valuable possession? May you feel that way about me!
This morning, Anna2 assured me, with the certainty that distinguishes the oracle-pronouncing and oracle-believing half of mankind, that you would be coming along tonight. I can only explain her confidence by assuming that her ears must have burned yesterday