SELECT CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 383According to Eleanor, Mrs Kugelmann (for whom she had a great
affection) was always being told by her husband that she was not suf-
ficiently grateful for the benefits he conferred on her and 'the grand scene
began because Mrs K. didn't lift up her dress on a dusty day'.^60 Franziska
wrote later that there was another point at issue: Marx and Kugelmann
quarrelled violently during a long walk in which Kugelmann 'tried to
persuade Marx to refrain from all political propaganda and complete the
third book of Capital before anything else'^61 - a subject on which Marx
was always touchy. Marx and Eleanor left Carlsbad on 21 September and
studiously avoided Hanover. They went first to Leipzig to see Liebknecht,
who took them to welcome Wilhelm Bios on his release from prison.
Bios, then a social-democratic journalist and later Prime Minister of
Wurttemberg, wrote later:
Fxcited and happy I walked through the prison doors. Outside stood
Liebknecht with one of his small sons.^62 And near him there stood, with
a beautiful young lady on his arm, a tall, thin man in his fifties with a
long white beard, the moustache alone being really black. His com-
plexion was fresh and he could have been taken for a jovial old English-
man. But I recognised him immediately from his photo....^65They then went on to Berlin to see Marx's brother-in-law Edgar, who
earned his living as a minor functionary while still preserving his sympathy
lor communism. After a trip to Hamburg to see Meissner they returned
to London at the beginning of October.
The following year Marx went alone to Carlsbad. His journey out was
enlivened by a discussion with a Catholic priest whose reserve Marx
managed to break down by the production of a bottle of Cognac. On
arrival he announced in letters home that the absence of Kugelmann was
a great help to his health, and set about enjoying the long walks and the
I'ilsener beer. He spent much time in the company of Maxim Kovalevsky,
. 1 liberal Russian aristocrat who shared his interest in the history of land
ownership in Russia, and was later a frequent visitor in London. Kovalev-
sky was no socialist but admired Marx profoundly and came to occupy
the position in Marx's life so recently vacated by Kugelmann.
The police continued to watch Marx closely but could only report
back to Prague that 'he lives quietly, has very little intercourse with the
other guests and frequently goes on long walks alone'. The cure was very
beneficial: Engels reported in October 1875 that 'Marx has come back
110111 Carlsbad quite changed, strong, fresh, confident and healthy, and
1 an now once more take up his work in earnest.'^64
In 1876 , for the third year in succession, Marx returned to Carlsbad.
I Ins time he took Eleanor with him, saying that he had missed her too