| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 15 December 1851 |
To Marie Blank in London
Manchester, Monday, 15 December 1851
Dear Marie,
I got your letter on Saturday, the only day of the week on which I can never manage to write a private letter because we then shut up the office as early as noon; otherwise you'd have had an answer sooner.
I'm sorry that you should have had so much illness in the house of late, but am glad to hear that things are now taking a better turn; I hope to see Hermann as well as little Titi fully recovered by the time I arrive. You should really have written to tell me all about it for, so long as I don't hear, I have to assume that all is well; and besides you also owed me a letter in reply to the one in which I returned you your latch-key last summer.[1]
I have as usual been well all this while, and am merely somewhat vexed by the onset of bad weather which prevents me going out into the country, this being a real necessity here in Manchester. For the past few days I have been aware of certain premonitory symptoms which lead me to believe that there may be a recurrence of the disagreeable tooth-ache I suffered from last winter, the more disagreeable in that it interferes with my customary bathing, etc. I hope, however, that the thing will pass off without too much inconvenience—at any rate I don't intend to fret in advance about pain which I'm not yet suffering.
By the end of this week I shall probably have put my current business in order and, this being a quiet time for us anyway, I shall see to it that I leave here on Saturday evening[2] and, since the trains all arrive in London either too late at night or too early in the morning for one to drive across to Camberwell directly, I shall recuperate a while in the Euston Hotel and arrive at your place BEFORE DINNER TIME on Sunday. At any rate you can expect me at the Grove for dinner on Sunday, unless you get a letter to the contrary from me on Saturday morning.
As for the French, the jackasses can do what they like, it's all one to me.
My warm regards to Emil and Hermann and your children. Your description of your new maids has made me eager to see them. Nota bene, should you have too much BOTHER in the house on Sunday, thus making my company and any further inconvenience seem undesirable just now, you have only to write and send me an army order instructing me when to present myself, and I shall not fail to be punctual.
Toujours[3] your
Friedrich