Marie Curie was able to begin work. Their mutual passion for science brought them increasingly closer, and they began to develop feelings for one another. Eventually Pierre Curie proposed marriage, but at first Skłodowska did not accept as she was still planning to go back to her native country. Curie, however, declared that he was ready to move with her to Poland, even if it meant being reduced to teaching French. Meanwhile, for the 1894 summer break, Skłodowska returned to Warsaw, where she visited her family. She was still laboring under the illusion that she would be able to work in her
Marie Curie l'industrie nationale" ). That same year Pierre Curie entered her life; it was their mutual interest in natural sciences that drew them together. Pierre Curie was an instructor at the School of Physics and Chemistry, the "École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la ville de Paris" (ESPCI). They were introduced by the Polish physicist, Professor Józef Wierusz-Kowalski, who had learned that she was looking for a larger laboratory space, something that Wierusz-Kowalski thought Pierre Curie had access to. Though Curie did not have a large laboratory, he was able to find some space for Skłodowska where she