D O C U M E N T 2 0 4 F E B R U A R Y 1 9 2 4 2 0 3
doesn’t wish to ruin her. She promised to be nice to you and to make your time
spent at our apartment pleasant whenever you come to see me. She was pleased that
you brought her that little bunch of flowers. Dear Betty, you are young and radiant;
have compassion for her and lighten her difficult struggle. What she fears so much
is that I make her look ridiculous in front of other people by frequenting a friend’s
home out of love for you. This comes from a fixed idea she is stuck on, to regard
the good Mühsams as her bitter enemies. I am making the greatest effort to do the
right thing, and to give each of you whatever I can. So I beg you to make it easier
for me by not interpreting it as a sign of a lack of affection if I don’t secretly visit
you at Mühsam’s, as ardently as I would like to. Grant her that sacrifice and visit
me at our apartment instead. Don’t be angry and don’t let any resentment arise.
Don’t think that I am being too considerate to her and not sufficiently to you. Rath-
er, imagine that I see her suffering all day long and feel compassion for her. So I
had to let you go home on your own yesterday, a sorrow for me as great as it would
have been a joy for me to accompany you.
So I warmheartedly ask you to please come and see me on Friday afternoon
again, like yesterday. Then the subtle cloverleaf will go together to Mühsam’s. Dar-
ling, good, brave girl, be kissed from your
A. Einstein
P. S. Dear Betty! It’s working well for the womenfolk. Soon no secretiveness
will be necessary, rather you will soon be the owner of a sacred, established right.
204. To Mileva Einstein-Maric
Berlin, 1 February 1924
Dear Mileva,
I am forwarding to you the 2nd copy of my letter to the firm Ladenburg, Thal-
mann & Co. in New
York,[1]
which you will read carefully and thereafter forward
to the firm appending your instructions regarding the
interest.[2]
I enclose for you a transcription of this letter to the firm, so that you can put it
with your
papers.[3]
By this order to the bank I fulfill the article of our contract
which prescribes that, in the case of our divorce and provided I receive the Nobel
Prize, I should transfer its capital over to you as your property. This letter satisfies
at the same time the provision which prescribes that you should have the interest
freely at your disposal but the capital only with my
agreement.[4]
My conduct di-
verges from the contract only insofar as I have placed the deposit not into a Swiss
bank but in a North American one because I regard this as more advantageous and