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386F
[to Mrs Abraham]
Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
3 January 1921
Dear Frau Doctor,1
Your children's letters were too charming—I hope they did not cost them too much trouble or even tears, were not rewritten several times, etc. I should have answered the little ones directly, but I was afraid of undermining their morals, because I should certainly have thought of confessing that the finest gifts are spoilt by having to say thank you for them. It would also have embarrassed me either to go on playing the part of the great patron or having to admit that I had made them happy by means of the resources of others. When the opportunity arises, please tell them the true state of affairs, to which the moral can be attached that also by work like the practice of psychoanalysis it is possible to acquire a few Dutch guilders sometime late in life.
From your news I pick out the one that your husband is now at last well again. We were already quite annoyed about his illness. Here too we are haunted by more illness than is actually indispensable.
Wishing you all a Happy New Year, richer in fulfilment and entirely devoid of anything disagreeable,
Your faithfully devoted
Freud
It was customary to address wives by their husbands' academic titles.