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Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
January 7, 1898
Dear Dr. Breuer
I am taking the liberty of answering for my wife, who is not familiar with the two subjects of your letter and of explaining the reasons for the return of 350 florins (via post office savings account).
So far as my debt to you is concerned, there is no doubt that it exists. I have not forgotten it and have always intended to pay it; nor have I assumed that you expected anything else. You once told me that you weren't sure of the sum; according to my memory, which I know is not very reliable, it came to about 2300 florins. On paper I have been solvent for several years, but the profit was always made up of outstanding fees, as is so often the case in our profession, and the constantly recurring difficulty of obtaining the cash for daily living, even if it is backed by securities, has made it impossible for me to start the repayment until now. Only during this past year, the most lucrative for my practice, has my profit in cash been large enough to let me dare reduce it by a certain sum. Originally this sum had been far larger than the amount received by you; but part of it had to go to England in order to take care of a need that had arisen in the family. It was circumstances of this kind which I described in my accompanying letter as the obstacles preventing my rise to “prosperity.” You may rest assured that if I have begun to settle my debt this year, and not before, it isn't because of any other change1 that has occurred in the meantime. In one respect at least we see eye to eye: for neither of us are financial relationships the most important in life, nor do they seem incommensurable with other relationships. That I had to testify to this theory in an active and passive way, as receiver and giver, while you were able to confine yourself to the active role, is something you yourself always used to describe as a matter of luck rather than of merit.
The second concern, that of my treating Fräulein C., has not the