Life has suddenly assumed a hectic aspect, since I ended my last letter to you to go to dinner with Dr. Lampl. I felt dreadfully disinclined for it, but I pulled myself together & went & actually found the place & his door & rang at the bell. He opened the door himself & burst into a flood of English, some of which I could understand. It then of course turned out that he understood none of my English so that at one moment I found myself talking in broken German & him answering in fragmentary English. After that he threw up the sponge & we drifted into the smoother waters of total German. He gave me a supper, tete-a-tete, in his room, which was rather nice, as there is never that slightest pause in his conversation & he gave his undivided attention to the question of providing acquaintences and distraction. (The only real question is, can I bear them & try it?). This was on Monday evening. He arranged for me to come to Bernfeldt's lecture the next evening (not much for that, by the way) & to meet (1) Dr. Rado (2) A sister (name unknown) of a husband of Anna Freud's sister Mathilda (3) Ernst Freud--I think he turned up by accident. We all then went to the Romanisches Cafe, dropping Mrs. X & picking up Mr. Y (Some relation of Rado's, I think). I didn't much cotton to Mrs. X; she's rather a 'managing' person & will talk English-damn their eyes!-in an excruciating way. I'm to go a walk with her some day. Ernst Freud I thought simply charming-so extraordinarily full of vitality that he can't sit still for a moment, & always talking & joking-rather like Duncan in some ways-& with that habit, which is so infuriating in other people, of suddenly attending to something else, or nothing, so that one suddenly finds one's self talking into the air. But there are certain, occasional, faint, horrible reminiscences of Epstein (or Alfred) about him. But the sort of jokes he makes is the sort one is used to-passagere jokes, not those awful set pieces. There's another lecture tonight, & one on Friday. At present I'm allowed to go to any lectures and meetings I like, but I gather that under circumstances this may not be so. I still hover over the Wurzburg question, as Dr. Lampl has ratted & is going, & I seem to feel a pressure in that direction from higher quarters. But it means missing the first Rose evening (Friday) & more train journeys. . . I'll imitate you & keep those things undecided as long as possible.
There's another female, a lonely actress, to whom Lampl wants to introduce me. He seems to think I shall prefer her to Mrs. X. He really is a very decent sort of person & fairly sensible.
Your letter has just come. Dearest James, it is comforting to think of you thinking of me. You see you have Faith, but mine is very weak.
With all my love,
yours
Alix
