i mean if i was the son of some rich industrialist i would pay my friend’s rent too tbh, but i wonder if the terse writing is just how they wrote or if it is karl marx hiding feelings of inadequacy or something, its hard to ask others for money even if you know they would give it, especially for a cis man in a very patriarchal time. especially hard to ask outside of the immediate family as well. it might have been weirder for engels if marx opened with some kind of softener line or sob story right? idk how their relationship was though. dudes are weird sometimes.