“I have heard that you prefer to remain for the summer in the neighbourhood of Vienna, instead of going to Grumitz. You are quite wrong there. The air of Grumitz would suit you much better than that dusty Hietzing; and poor papa will be quite bored all alone. Probably it is on your husband’s account that you will not go away; but it seems to me that the duty of a daughter also should not be quite neglected. Tilling, too, could surely come to Grumitz for a day sometimes. To be so very much together is not altogether good for married folks--trust to my experience of life. I have noticed that the best marriages are those in which the couple are not always sitting prosing together, but allow each other a little latitude. Now, good-bye; spare yourself--so as not to get a relapse--and think again about Hietzing. May heaven preserve you and your Rudi. This is the constant prayer of your affectionate
“P.S.--Your husband has, I know, relatives in Prussia (happily he is not so arrogant as his countrymen), so ask him what they are saying there about the political situation. It is surely very grave.”
This letter of my aunt made me reflect again that there was a “political situation”. During all this time I had not troubled myself about anything of the sort. I had, it is true, read a good deal both before and after my illness, as usual, daily and weekly papers, reviews and books, but the leading articles in the journals remained unnoticed, since I no longer debated with myself the anxious question: “War or no war?”; the chatter about home and foreign politics possessed no interest for me. The postscript of the letter quoted above looked serious, and it occurred to me to look up what I had neglected and inform myself about our present position.
“What does Aunt Mary mean by her expression ‘threatening’? you least arrogant among the Prussians,” I asked my husband, as I gave him the letter to read. “Is there then a political situation at the present time?”
“There is one, as there is weather, always--more’s the pity--and one is also as changeable and treacherous as the other.”
“Well, tell me then. Are they talking still about these complicated duchies? Have they not done with them yet?”