INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME 1 xxxvii played a role. He nevertheless returned to Zurich in the fall and resumed life there with Maric, who was preparing to retake the final examinations. Einstein began to work on a doctoral dissertation under Weber's super- vision while earning a living by giving private lessons. In the spring of 1901 he gave up this plan and returned to his parents' home in Milan. His depar- ture, which was apparently related to his parents' opposition to his relation- ship with Maric, caused some tension between Einstein and Maric. That spring, Einstein tried to find a position as Assistent to a number of physics professors, but the search proved fruitless and depressing. He was convinced that Weber thwarted his efforts. Yet Einstein's mordant sense of humor did not fail him, and his letters remained optimistic. He soon received help from friends who were aware of his plight. Marcel Grossmann's father intervened on Einstein's behalf with the head of the Swiss Patent Office, who held out the prospect of a permanent post for Einstein in the future. In the meantime, with the help of other ETH friends, he obtained a temporary teaching position at the Winterthur technical school. Einstein responded enthusiastically to these brighter prospects. On the way to Winterthur from Milan, he and Maric were reunited on a brief expedition over the Splügen. While teaching at Winterthur, Einstein visited Maric frequently in Zurich. It was presumably during one of their meetings that she told Einstein of her pregnancy. He sought to reassure her-he would take any permanent job, no matter how little it might satisfy his personal and scientific ambitions then they would marry and confront his parents with a fait accompli. In spite of his attempts to secure a position in an insurance firm or at a secondary school, he again was only able to find temporary work, as a tutor at a private school in Schaffhausen, where he went in the fall of 1901. While there, he resumed work on a dissertation, this time under the supervision of Alfred Kleiner of the University of Zurich. In December he learned that the long-awaited position at the Swiss Patent Office was now assured, though the starting date was not certain. Soon afterwards, he left Schaffhausen abruptly and moved to Bern, supporting himself by giving private lessons while waiting for final word on the Patent Office appointment. Maric had gone home to Kac in the summer of 1901, after her second at- tempt to graduate from the ETH had failed. That fall a letter from Einstein's parents to Maric's parents caused a major crisis for her, whereupon she took a brief trip to Switzerland to visit Einstein. Their child, a girl called "Lieserl" in their letters, was born early in 1902. Einstein was appointed to the Patent Office in June of that year, and he and Maric were married in Bern early in 1903.