DOCS.
488,
489
DECEMBER
1913 365
top
of her
exciting
undertakings,
also has
the heart and
mind
for
a
thing
like this.
Write
me
at
once
after
you are
done
with
your
recitation,[2]
so
that
I
can rejoice
with
you.
Has
it
already
occurred
to
you
that half of the
period
of
our separation[3]
is
almost
over? I
am
already quite
tired of the
sad
state
of
being
more
than
alone!
So,
you
cannot
go
on
a
trip
for
Christmas;
it
is
a pity,
but
both of
us are
accustomed
to
looking
at
pleasurable
things
as
something
destined
for
others
only.
Do
you
know Busch's
beautiful
little
verse:
"It's
a
pleasure
to
abstain
|
From those
things
we
can't
obtain"?[4]
And
now,
your
letter.
Do
you
think
it
is
so easy
to
get a
divorce
if
one
does
not
have
any proof
of the other
party's
guilt,
if the
latter
is
shrewd
and-with
all due
respect-a
liar.
Actually,
I
do
not
even
have
a
proof
of
such
an
act-which
is
the
only
one
the
court
recognizes
as
"adultery"-that would be
convincing
to
myself.
On
the
other
hand,
I treat
my
wife
as
an
employee
whom I cannot fire. I have
my own
bedroom
and avoid
being
alone
with
her.
In this form I
can
endure the
"living
together" quite
well. In
fact,
I
don't understand
why you
are so
terribly upset
by
that. I
am
absolutely
my
own
master and,
if
you
do
not want to join
me,
also
my
own-wife.
By
the
way,
it
does
me good
if
you are
rough
with
me;
for
everywhere
else I
am
treated
as
a
saint
or
a
shell-less
egg,
even
though,
thank
God,
I
am
neither of the
two.
You cannot
imagine
how
much I
look forward
to this
spring,
first
of
all
because of
you,
but
also
because of
Haber
and
Planck.[5]
The kindness
and
helpfulness
shown to
me by
Planck
are simply
touching,[6]
and
you
experienced
the
same
from
Haber.[7]
But what remains
most
important
to
me
is
to have
someone
with whom I
can
have
a
decent
chat,
and
to whom
I
mean
something
as a
person,
and
this
is
you.
Love and
kisses
from
your
Albert
489.
To
Elsa Löwenthal
[Zurich,
after
2
December
1913][1]
Dear
Elsa,
Your
success[2]
made
me
very happy.
Even
though
success
with fellow
men
(i.e.,
the
esteemed
public)
does
not
impress
me
too
much,
it
is
very good
with
regard
to
your
family,
which will
now
quite
gingerly give you
credit
for
it.
I
hope
that the
thing
will
bring you only joy,
without
producing insatiable,
painful
ambition.
The latter
is
a
bad
companion;
throw
him out!
My
wife will
probably
go
to
the Habers around
New
Year.[3]
She
is
an unfriendly,
humorless
creature who does not
get anything
out
of
life
and
who,
by
her
mere
presence,
extinguishes
other
people's
joy
of
living (malocchio!).[4]
I
told her
that
she
can
deal
with
you
and
your family
in
whatever
way
she wants. As
far
as
I
am
concerned, she
does
not have to
look
you
up at all.
The
less
personal friction,
the better.