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Berlin, Wednesday
March 10, 1886
My sweet darling
What strange things you have been experiencing and what fascinating letters you are able to write! I take a very warm interest in the fate of the silver snake, and your comment on the sensation of receiving telegrams is really excellent. Fortunately nothing like that is happening here. I am going to take the liberty of being as boring today as I was yesterday; so far no adventure, no thrill, no éclat, as we used to have in Paris. Just quiet work. I have plunged into the translation with something akin to passion because I am afraid of not finishing it, no doubt a quite unreasonable fear. This morning I roused myself to the point of going to the Royal Museum, where I had a brief look at the antique fragments, with deep regret at not being able to understand more about them and with nostalgic memories of the Louvre, which is so much more magnificent and substantial. The most interesting things are of course the Pergamene sculptures, all of them fragments representing the battle between the gods and the giants-tense, dramatic scenes. As my colleague Dr. Turkheim used to say, one can't always be a doctor.
What appeals to me more than the stones, however, are the children in the clinic, who on account of their small format and because