B., September 11, 1899

Dear Wilhelm,

Heartfelt thanks for your efforts. I had myself already noticed a few careless passages and some that were confusing because of omissions, but the other improvements will be faithfully transferred. Der Vierundzwanzigste Februar [The twenty-fourth of February] is a tragedy of fate by Houwald.1 Unfortunately a further package containing thirty galleys is going off today, by no means the last.

I have finished; that is to say, the entire manuscript has been sent off. You can imagine the state I am in, the increase of my normal depression after the elation. Perhaps you do not read Simplicissimus, which I regularly enjoy. In it there is a conversation between two army friends: “Well, comrade, so you have become engaged;