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then, during the affair with the Fr 50…, Mr. Karr sent me such a nasty letter (at the
same time as one of yours) that I surely won’t be able to stay with him anymore,
and staying in a hotel is uncomfortable and
expensive.[8]
Heartfelt greetings from your
¢Albert²Papa.
160. To Elsa Einstein
[Leyden,] 27 November 1923
Dear Else,
I was very pleased about the warm-hearted letters from all of you. Now, of
course, nothing over there seems to be standing in the way of my homeward
trip.[1]
But there still is a catch. A ceremony for the award of the medal is still supposed
to be taking place in Amsterdam, and that can’t happen so quickly. So it’ll probably
be well into the middle of
December.[2]
I’m glad that you found such a satisfactory
activity, and I don’t want you to give it up for my
sake.[3]
Even when things some-
times get topsy-turvy, I’m not going to complain. How could people start teasing
me about B[etty]
N[eumann]?[4]
I never did say anything about her to anyone. I told
Mr. de
Ridder[5]
about Mrs. Büchsenstein, and he doesn’t think it’s impossible that
his
mother[6]
will find something. The children’s letters delighted me. I am now
persuaded that Margot won’t let herself be pulled
under.[7]
Everyone should be spe-
cially nice to her so that it doesn’t all seem so hard on her. I’ll be glad to give Cha-
piro a
recommendation;[8]
going to America suits him. I can have a job of last resort
here anytime, in an emergency, and generate some very decent earnings. But then,
naturally, I would mainly have to reside here, that is, in Amsterdam. That doesn’t
seem to be necessary yet for the time being. Consequently, I don’t need to go to
America.[9]
Everything is doable as long as I don’t actually have to keep a house-
hold here. That would be far too expensive. In any case, we don’t have to worry.
Ehrenfest is leaving for America on
Monday.[10]
Yesterday his wife
arrived;[11]
she
has very lively and interesting stories to tell us about Russia. I am ashamed of my-
self to be drawing the Berlin salary for so long without being there. But I can’t
change it. I am working here very peacefully and with variable success; it is a hard
quest full of eternal doubts. I have been severely neglecting my correspondence.
When Ehrenfest is away, I shall be teaching a few more courses so that the students
here also have something from me. I appear very gypsy-like to myself. I don’t know
what I’ll be doing about South America
yet.[12]
But it is quite a respectable business
and won’t be so terribly straining. Ask how much lecturing I would have to do.
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