1 0 V O L U M E 1 , D O C U M E N T 1 8 c Vol. 1, 18c. To Pauline Winteler Pavia, Tuesday [14 July 1896][1] My dear Mama No. 2,[2] Since & inasmuch as I’m always being slandered, because I’m supposedly not a diligent, aspiring young man, & my Mama No. 2 is such a very good mama (with- out detriment to No. 1),[3] I am writing to you right ¢after² on the first day & in- forming you that during the trip my abdominal complaint took a brilliant course, as did the whole trip generally & everything to do with it. The heat was absolutely savage, which quite fit the scene in short, I would have thought I were in hell if my dear cousin[4] and your cake hadn’t been gazing at me so lovingly and if I couldn’t have been able to dream sweetly about the time when there was no tummy ache & it wasn’t so hot—and about when everything was so lovely and nice. I like it a great deal, being here in Pavia again with Mama No. 1. We make a devil of a musical racket and play my dear Papa’s[5] ears off, and crack many jokes that excel in their depravity. We’ve already been reading a lot from Pantander [6] my parents are en- thralled by it. Papa finds that this coupling of good emotion and powerful thoughts reminds him vividly of Heine,[7] who is his favorite poet. My little sister[8] is duti- fully playing piano again much technique, intellect, & aesthetic feeling, but little lyrical mood. She is altogether a grand wench (taken in the best sense). The sun is beating down over here as if it were being paid under contract one is constantly being roasted. Even so, one isn’t roasted to death. You don’t have to worry about your dear little stepson & foster child one can see that from the Pavians, who are still quite alive & whose resilient nerves are masterfully demonstrated by their tol- erance of that dreadful hurdy-gurdy jingling, a significant achievement. Otherwise, there’s no entertainment here. When you go out walking, are roasting potatoes, put- ting on revised & expanded editions of tea, gossiping & laughing, when little Marie[9] is playing music, then think once in a while in stepmotherly love & friend- ship of your Albert Please greet the professor & little Marie & Miss Rosa & the boys & give my apologies to Mathias[10] for not having said good-bye to him.