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A BIOGRAPHY
223
fact, she was so impractical that all the minor details
of life were a burden to her. When she was obliged
to seek work that paid, to apply to an editor or get
introductions, she was incapable of looking after her
own interests. But she never failed to find some
devoted friend who made her interest his own, and on
whom she could throw all the burden of her affairs.
At every railway-station where she stopped on her
many journeys, some one was always waiting to receive
her, to procure rooms for her, to show her the way, or
to place his services at her disposal. It was such a
delight to her to be thus assisted and cared for in trifles
that, as I said before, she rather liked to exaggerate
her fears and helplessness. Notwithstanding all this,
there was never a woman who, in the deepest sense of
the word, could be more independent of others than
she.
In a letter written in German to the admirer who
had taught her to dance and skate, Sönya describes
her life in Stockholm during the winter of 1884—85:
Stockholm, April, 1885.
Dear Mr. H-: I am ashamed that I have not answered
your kind letter sooner. My only excuse is the multifarious
occupations which have filled up my time. I will tell you all I
have been doing. To begin with, there are my lectures three
times a week in Swedish. I read and study the algebraic
introduction to Abel’s " Functions," and in Germany these lectures
are supposed to be the most difficult. I have a pretty large
number of students, all of whom I retain, with the exception of,
at most, two or three who have withdrawn. Secondly, I have
been writing a short mathematical treatise, which I shall send
to Weierstrass immediately, asking him to get it published in
Borcliardt’s Journal. Thirdly, I and Mittag Leffler have begun
a large mathematical work. We hope to get a great deal of
pleasure and fame out of it—this is a secret at present, so do
not yet mention it. Fourthly, I have made the acquaintance of
a very pleasant man, who has recently returned to Stockholm
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