PARIS HIof danger, and was the subject of long paragraphs of loving description
in Jenny's letters to Marx. When her old friends and acquaintances came
to see her and view the baby, she felt as though she were holding court.
She fended off as best she could inquiries about exactly what sort of a
job Marx had acquired in Paris. In fact she was filled with misgivings
which she confided to her husband:Dear heart, I have too great an anxiety about our future, both in the
long and the short term, and I think that I shall be punished for my
present high spirits and exuberance. If you can, please calm my fears
on this point. People talk far too much about a steady income. I then
answer simply with my red cheeks, my white flesh, my velvet cloak, my
feathered hat and my fine ribbons.^184Full of anxiety she made the difficult trip to her mother-in-law whose
attitude, she was surprised to find, had quite changed since the marriage.
Marx's mother and his three sisters still living at home received her with
open arms, a change of heart she could only attribute to the impression
made by their new prosperity with the 1000 thalers sent by Jung. She
finished her first letter to Marx with a delightful admonition - unfortu-
nately little-heeded - of his style:Please do not write in such a bitter and irritated style!!! Either write
factually and precisely or lightly and with humour. Please, dear heart,
let the pen run over the page, and even if it should sometimes fall and
stumble and cause a sentence to do likewise, yet your thoughts stand
upright like Grenadiers of the old Guard, steadfast and brave. ... What
does it matter if their uniform hangs loosely and is not so tightly laced?
How handsome the loose, light uniform looks on French soldiers.
Think of our elaborate Prussians - doesn't it make you shudder? So let
the participles run and put the words where they themselves want to
go. Such a race of warriors must not march too regularly. Are your
troops marching to field? Good luck to their general, my black master.
Fare well, dear heart, darling and only life.^185A later letter, however (written from a Trier grown suddenly feverish with
the influx of nearly a million pilgrims to see the Holy Coat), was more
worried: she was anxious to return to Paris lest Marx be led astray by the
temptations of the city; at the same time she feared - and the event
proved her right - that a second baby would be on its way soon after her
return. 'Though the exchequer may be full at the moment,' she wrote,
'reflect how easily it empties itself again, and how difficult it is to fill
it!'^186 She returned to Paris in September 1844 with the wet nurse and
her four-tooth baby to find that Marx had just formed the most important
friendship of his life - that with Friedrich Engels.