London, 22 May 1883 

My dear Laura, 

I had not, as Paul suggests, forgotten his five pd. note, but having 
Sam Moore here, could not get a free moment when to get it ready 
and register the letter. Yesterday evening Sam returned to Manches- 
ter and the note would have left here to-day, but for Paul’s letter 
which alters his directions to me. The cheque is enclosed, £ 10.- 

So ce cher Paul is while I write this, a prisoner. 9 He has just (5.45) 
been debarred from receiving visitors and can now in all rest and 
peace discuss with Guesde the chances of la révolution révolutionnaire. 
We drank his health last Sunday* in a bowl of splendid Maitrank? 
and wished him any amount of pluck and patience. 

Well, for a long time I thought you might profit of Paul’s involun- 
tary seclusion, to come over to London, and would have at once placed 
the whole of 122 Regent’s Park Road at your disposal, but from 
all I learnt I was afraid I might hurt someone’s feelings by such 
a proposal. Even Nim when she returned, never mentioned a word 
about it, that you had spoken of showing your bright face in this dull 
climate; and when Paul wrote he expected you to lunch with him 

2 20 May-° Wine flavoured with sweet woodruff, May wine. 

every morning in St-Pélagie I lost heart altogether. Now however it is 
all right, and I hope to hear soon from you that you accept my invita- 
tion, to make this place your headquarters for a couple of months at 
least, which of course will not exclude trips to the sea-side, etc. If Paul 
has to be under lock and key, so much the more reason for you to look 
after your own health. 

While Sam was here, we found out, through him, the very unpleas- 
ant fact that Mohr never had, nor have we, the right to stop unauth- 
orised translation of the Kapital. The right was lost as soon as the first 
year elapsed without a commencement of translation being published. 
So as there are several fellows in the field, 5° we have to dodge and 
to use the unpublished 2nd volume as a means to bring them 
round. 

The 2nd volume will give me an awful deal of work —at least the 
II book.* There is one complete text, of about 1868, but a mere 
brouillon.* Then there are at least three, if not four, Ueberarbeitungen? 
belonging to various later periods, but none of them completed. That 
will be a job to select from them a definitive text! The 3rd book is 
complete since 1869-70 and has never been touched since. But here, 
where the rent of land is treated, I shall have to compare his Russian 
extracts °’ for notes, facts and instances. Maybe IJ shall be able to con- 
coct even a bit of a 3rd volume from the ms. of 1858-62 °° (the begin- 
ning of which appeared in Berlin [in] 1859°) and which at the end of 
every chapter contains the critical history of the theoretical points 
discussed in it. 

Lately I have been occupied with sorting the correspondence. 
There is a large box full of most important letters [from] 1841 (nay 
1837 from your grandfather Marx“) to 1862. It is nearly sorted, but it 
will take me some hours more to complete it. I can assure you it is 
great fun to me to stumble over these old things most of which con- 
cern me as much as they did Mohr and there is such a dea] to laugh 
over. Nim helps me —awful lot of dusting required! and we have 
many a good laugh over old times. The correspondence since 1862 he 
has sorted, in a passable way, himself. But before we fathom all the 
mysteries of that garret full of boxes, packets, parcels, books, etc., 
some time must elapse. And I have to prepare for the 3rd edition sun- 
dry additions from the French translation °° which I know Mohr in- 
tended inserting; and that must be done in 3-4 weeks. 

@ draft-' revised versions-° K. Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political 
Economy. Part One.-* Heinrich Marx 

But now it’s post-time and so good-bye for to-day. 

Yours affectionately, 
F. Engels