To Kallenbach

[This letter was written in English. - V.G.D.]

7, Buitensingle,
Cape town, March 16, 1914

The greatest grief imaginable has befallen me. My brother died yesterday, I suppose simply thinking up to his last breath of me. What a passionate wish it was on his part to meet me. I was hurrying everything on so that I could go to India with the quickest dispatch and fall down at his feet and nurse him. But it was not to be. Now I must go to a family of widows with my poor self as the head. You who do not know the Indian patriarchal family system do not quite realize what this may mean. Anyway my desire to get to India is keener than ever. And yet who knows? I doubt very much whether I shall ever realize that desire. However I must prepare for the pilgrimage, and then leave it calmly in the hands of Him, who wields the almighty power.