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Vienna
February 21, 1883
Dear Minna
Like so many things in this world, my motives for answering you so promptly are mixed; half because I was so pleased by your unexpected letter, and half because, feeling numb and weary after the extraction of a tooth, I cannot work and yet feel I must be alone. (Martha has gone off with my sisters to visit Dr. Herzig's1 fiancée and niece.) No, I am doing you an injustice; it is seven eighths because I am pleased and one eighth because I am tired. It was very sensible of you to write as you did. As a happy man at the moment I feel a strong desire to do something for the temporarily separated couple,2 and considering the abundance of power which the good Lord has so trustfully laid in my hands, I have little choice but to talk to the one and write to the other. Since Elise3 left and Anna4 and Eli are reconciled, conditions here during these past weeks have been rather less interesting and rather more satisfactory. There are still clouds in the domestic sky; in the one corner growls your Ignaz, in the other sulks your Mama; there are, however, definite signs that, “weary of their long strife,”5 this couple too will eventually make peace.
But these are matters which deserve to be treated differently. You