9 0 V O L U M E 8 , D O C U M E N T 4 7 5 b
Vol. 8, 475b. From Maja Winteler-Einstein
Lucerne, 6 March 1918
My dear Albert,
Last Sunday your letter of alarm
arrived.[1]
It is really no trifling matter for you
to still have such agitations, in your ill state. You can be sure that we are doing
whatever is in our power to put your mind at
ease.[2]
Yesterday, for instance, on Tuesday (Monday I had ironing), I drove with
Pauli[3]
to Zurich to find out the essentials, and if possible to take little Albert with
us right
away.[4]
That was a tragicomical odyssey and I want to tell you about it in
extenso so that you have something to smile about. Immediately upon our arrival
we telephoned Zangger and received the information that he would not be home
until the evening; he was away on a trip. With the present horrendous connections,
the last train from Zurich to Lucerne leaves at 6 o’clock in the evening; so looking
at each other with dumb-founded, very long faces we proceeded to draft our plan
of attack under the changed circumstances. Pauli was to return to Lucerne and I
wanted to spend the night at
Anna’s,[5]
in order to orient myself and, if possible, to
speak with Zangger the next day, also to go to Miza, etc.,
etc.[6]
I had to pay another
visit and Pauli went first to Anna’s to procure night quarters for me. He did not want
to talk to her at all about our mission, since, as you know, one can let her talk, of
course, but not talk with her. But she guessed the purpose of our coming, and when
Pauli confirmed her suspicions, such a torrent of accusations, scoldings, and threats
poured forth from the mouth of this injured Justitia, who in her blindness never
strikes wide of the mark (or always must?), that Pauli took his hat to escape and
fled. I was just coming through the front door as he was halfway down the stairs
and heard Anna’s excited voice still giving him all sorts of gracious exhortations
from above. Paul wanted to drag me out onto the street, but Anna now pounced on
the new prey, who naturally had not the faintest idea about the preceding events and
whose very perplexed gaze was alternating between her screaming sister-in-law
and her enraged husband. Pauli finally did pull me away, and then we were left
standing out on the street. Pauli then recounted in unvarnished prose what had hap-
pened, whereupon I resolved to return to the lion’s den to find out something about
the facts after all. Also, I did not want a new family feud. As soon as I came up the
stairs, I was deluged again with the absurdest of accusations while I sat there mute-
ly. After a quarter of an hour of accusations against you,
Elsa,[7]
and me all mixed
together and a valiant defense of Zangger (whom I had not attacked at all) whom
she protected with her own person, she felt like the embodiment of justice and we
parted
peacefully.[8]
Then I wrote to Zangger about a rendezvous and we steamed
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