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7 June 1909, Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
Since I know you take a personal interest in the Sp. matter I am informing you of developments. Of course there is no need for you to answer this.
I understood your telegram correctly, your explanation confirmed my guess. Well, after receiving your wire I wrote Fräulein Sp. a letter in which I affected ignorance, pretending to think her suggestion was that of an over-zealous enthusiast. I said that since the matter on which she wished to see me was of interest chiefly to myself, I could not take the responsibility of encouraging her to take such a trip and failed to see why she should put herself out in this way. It therefore seemed preferable that she should first acquaint me with the nature of her business. I have not yet received an answer.
Such experiences, though painful, are necessary and hard to avoid. Without them we cannot really know life and what we are dealing with. I myself have never been taken in quite so badly, but I have come very close to it a number of times and had a narrow escape.1 I believe that only grim necessities weighing on my work, and the fact that I was ten years older than yourself when I came to ΨA, have