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A BIOGRAPHY
205
It was after this that the dramatic episodes in S6nya’s
life occurred: the separation from her husband; the
Polish romance; her husband’s death, and her long
illness.
All this delayed the completion of the papers
mentioned in her letter, so that it was not until August,
1883, that she could inform Mittag Leffler that the
first thesis was completed. She writes to him from
Odessa1 on August 28, 1883:
I have at last succeeded in finishing one of the two works
on which I have been busy during the last two years. My first
wish, as soon as I found it satisfactory, was to let you know.
But Mr. W-, with his usual kindness, has taken that
trouble, letting you know the result of my researches. I have just
received a letter from him, saying that he had told you about
it, and that you have answered him with your usual kindness,
asking me to go to Stockholm, and to begin there a course of
private lessons: I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you for
the friendship you have always shown me, and how happy I am
to be able to enter a career which has ever been the cherished
object of my desires. At the same time I feel I ought to tell
you that in many respects I feel but little fitted for the duties
of " docent," and at times I so much doubt my own capacity that
I feel you, who have always judged me leniently, will be quite
disillusioned when you find, on nearer inspection, how little I
am really good for. I am truly grateful to Stockholm, which is
the only European university that will open its doors to me, and
I am already prepared to be in love with that city, and to attach
myself to Sweden as though it were my native home. I hope
that, if I do come there, it will be to find a new "foster-land."
But just because of this, I think I should not care to go there
before I feel prepared to deserve the good opinion you have of
me, and to make a good impression. I have written to-day to
W-to ask whether he does not think it would be good for
me to spend another two or three months with him, in order to
grasp his ideas better, and to fill up the gaps which are still to
be found in my mathematical knowledge. These few months in
Berlin would also be useful to me, for I should then come into
1 Appendix C.
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