Letter to Victor Adler, December 12, 1890

ENGELS TO VICTOR ADLER

IN VIENNA

London, 12 December 1890

Dear Adler,

I was on the point of writing to thank you and your wife for the telegram when I got your letter of the 9th with Aveling's dishonoured CHEQUE.^[1] In its place I am sending you the enclosed cheque on the local branch of the same bank for £10 4/- to include expenses, and this CHEQUE will not be dishonoured.

It's the slapdash literary Bohemian in Aveling that leads to this kind of thing, especially when the said Bohemian insists on having a bank account. 'So young and already a Bohemian' might also be said of him. Incidentally the pair of them will soon be arriving to lunch with me, when I shall be able to give him a thorough dressing-down for this piece of carelessness and her for the frightful adulation she expended on me in the Sozialdemokratische Monatsschrift. She's right in only one respect, namely my beard's being curiously lop-sided—there are, incidentally, perfectly good reasons for this which, however, I shall spare you.

Many thanks for your hints about Louise. It is also my wish that she should remain with me and if this should fall through, I shall find it very hard to part with her. But I should have a constant feeling of uneasiness if I thought she had sacrificed other duties and other prospects on my account. Well, the matter will probably be decided in a week or two. If she stays, she will have to return to Vienna at least once this winter so as to get everything straightened out there.

As regards the danger of overwork, this was, I should say, very real in Vienna. Here, on the other hand, it is hardly likely to arise. She is not to do any actual house-work, indeed could not do so — if only on account of the maids who would not in that case regard her as a proper LADY. All she has to do is to direct and supervise. She is, besides, acting as my secretary; I dictate to her or give her things to copy out so that I can spare my eyes, and then there are various subjects I shall be studying with her — chemistry to begin with, then French; she also wants to do Latin and that presents no difficulty. After luncheon we sleep, and at night, to give my eyes a rest from reading, we play cards from 11 to 12; I also sleep better if my mind is empty. I know, by the way, what an urge she feels to sacrifice herself for others and it is this, in particular, that is preventing me from urging her to stay here. On the evening of the day before yesterday we discussed the matter at length when the chief obstacle seemed to be her mother to whom she only wrote yesterday about her intention to remain here. The answer to this will, of course, be of crucial importance. But imagine the state I'd be in if I had to tell myself that I had reft Louise away from a new, congenial and promising career, only to place her in a position in which she could not rid herself of the feeling of having done her mother an injury?

So, far from taking any kind of umbrage at your remarks on this subject, I am on the contrary most grateful for what you have said. For the only occasion on which Louise will depart from her instinctive candour is when she is intent on concealing her selflessness. And so it behoves us all to keep a close watch on her.

Warm regards to your wife and children about whom Louise tells me many amusing stories, and likewise to yourself from Louise and

Your

F. Engels