| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 13 October 1888 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE[1]
AT LE PERREUX
London, 13 October 1888
My dear Laura,
At last. The heap of letters which Paul foresaw would meet me here and which was indeed frightful, is mostly brushed away and I can sit down to write to you a few lines.
And to begin with, a bit of gossip. When we arrived, the first news Nim told us, was that Kautsky and his wife were going to be divorced, that Kautsky had fallen in love with a girl in the Salzburg Alps, informed his wife of the fact, and Louise had set him free as far as she was concerned. We were all thunderstruck. However, a letter from Louise to me—a really heroic letter—confirmed the news, and with a generosity beyond all praise even acquitted Kautsky of all blame. We all of us here were very fond of Louise and could not make it out how Kautsky could be such a fool—and such a mean one; except that an intrigue was at the bottom, planned by his mother and sister[2] (who both hated Louise) and that he had fallen into the trap. This seems indeed to have been the case, from all we can learn. The girl is a Bezirksrichter's[3] daughter, longing evidently for a husband and especially for one who will take her to Vienna. Kautsky flirted with her while his wife was in Vienna nursing her sick mother; and one fine morning the discovery was made that neither could live without the other—the sister, of course, working both puppets behind the scenes, while the mother pretended not to see anything. Well, Kautsky came here, told Bernstein, sold his furniture, took his books with him and returned, with his younger brother Hans, to St Gilgen near Salzburg, the scene of the above drama. When the youthful Bella (such is her name) saw the equally youthful Hans, a flotter strammer Bursch[4] , she at once discovered that she had, in Karl, really loved Hans alone, and Hans reciprocated with the alacrity becoming to a young Viennese; within five days they were engaged and Karl found himself between two stools of his own setting. Karl in his generosity has forgiven both, but the old mother fumes and threatens to forbid the young woman her house—and this throws a peculiar light, or rather shade, on her pretended innocence of the affair.
Of course, now Kautsky discovers at once that he has lived unhappily with Louise for the last 12 months (that is since his mother and sister were here and spent a month with them at the Isle of Wight) and Ede Bernstein will also have noted some disharmony when he came from Switzerland. This is all the more curious that during this time when he could not agree with her, we all here liked her all the better, the longer we knew her; which proves that she is not only a heroic woman, for that she is undoubtedly (and such are certainly not always the best for domestic use), but a woman with whom reasonable people can get on. Well I think and said to Nim: this is the greatest Dummheit Kautsky ever committed in his life and I do not envy him the moralischen Kater[5] which will be the upshot (sans calembourg)[6] of it all.
The matter is up to the present kept quiet. Here only Ede Bernstein and his wife, Nim, and Schorlemmer know about it, also Tussy and Edward, and probably one or two of Louise's and Tussy's common lady friends. How it will all end, I do not know, but I guess Kautsky wishes it was all a dream.
Now to business. Enclosed account of Capital, for the last 12 months, according to which I owe you £2.8s.9d, and as you must be by this time pretty short of cash I add £15—making the cheque £17.8s.9d in all.
Nim informs me dinner is getting ready and so I stop short, using the rest of the page for the account. Love from Nim and your old General.
Received from S. Sonnenschein and Co. for Royalties July 1887-June 88
£12.3.9 1/5 Longuet 's children 1/5 Laura Lafargue 1/5 Tussy
£ 2.8.9
£ 2.8.9
£ 2.8.9
£ 7.6.3
Remainder 2/5 for the Translators - £ 4.17.6 of which Sam Moore 3/5 E. Aveling 2/5
£ 2.18.6
£ 1.19.-
£ 4. 7.6[7]
Meissner's account I have not yet received.