| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 25 April 1876 |
ENGELS TO PHILIPP PAULI
IN RHEINAU
London, 25 April 1876
122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.
Dear Pauli,
I really don't know how we can thank you and your wife for all the kindness and friendship you have shown our Pumps,d so much so that she evidently feels completely at home with you. If her year en pension remains in her memory as the happiest of her life, it is you and your dear wife she has to thank for it.
She has told us of a nice little scheme which she devised when with you, and apparently with your help, aimed at bringing us all together at Whitsuntide. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with girls of her age, she has forgotten to tell us the most important thing of all, namely when in June her holidays begin. If I remember rightly, Miss Schupp said the holidays were in July, this being the hottest month of the year. So I shall first have to extract more accurate information from Mamsell Pumps on this point before I and my wife can come to any decision.
I hardly need tell you that it would give us both great pleasure to spend Whitsuntide with you at Rheinau. Unfortunately my wife always feels somewhat seedy in the springtime, and for that there is only one doctor—sea air, so I shall see whether I can't send her there for a few weeks, in which case the trip to Germany would do her twice as much good.
We were quite delighted when Pumps wrote to say that Mrs Pauli had decided to come to England with us. That is splendid, and we only trust that Pumps is voicing not simply a hope but a firm decision to be implemented without fail, even if the Whitsuntide excursion comes to nothing through Pumps having possibly made a miscalculation about her holidays, for after all the summer lasts a long time and she will have to be fetched whatever happens. However, we prefer to hope that Pumps is right and that the combined strategical operation will go off splendidly. Needless to say we shall do everything we can to make your wife's stay here as agreeable as possible and to induce her to prolong it until you yourself come to fetch her. Projet contre projet![1] Schorlemmer and Allman, if the latter hasn't gone away, would also be summoned, and the former will probably spend a fortnight with us at the seaside as he did last year. So we shall regard the thing as settled, the only point at issue being whether it takes place a fortnight earlier or later.
Schorlemmer was here for a few days in March; he looked very well and was very cheerful.
We got Mrs Pauli's letter in due course and were glad to learn that the pudding, after its long Odyssey, had arrived undamaged at its destination and had met with approval.
With warm regards from my wife and myself to you, your wife and the children.
Most cordially yours,
F. Engels