like that. I really wouldn't bother.

August 15th. To-day I posted the parcel to Hella, a silver-wire
watchchain; I made it in four days. I hope she'll get it safely, one can
never be sure in Hungary.

August 17th. We are so frightfully busy with Japanese lanterns and fir
garlands. The people who have received birthday honours are illuminating
and decorating their houses. While we were at work Ada told me a _few
things_. She knows more than Hella and me, because her father is a
doctor. He tells her mother a good deal and Ada overhears a lot of
things though they generally stop talking when she comes in. Ada would
like awfully to be an actress. I never thought of such a thing though
I've been to the theatre often.

August 22nd. Hella is awfully pleased with the chain; she is wearing it.
She is really learning to ride at her cousin's. It's a pity he's called
Lajos. But Ludwig is not any better. He seems to be awfully nice and
smart, but it's a pity he's 22 already.

August 25th. Ada is frightfully keen on the theatre. She has often been
to the theatre in St. Polten and she is in love with an actor with whom
all the ladies in St. Polten are in love. That is why she wants to be an
actress and so that she can live _free and unfettered_. That is why she
would like so much to come to Vienna. I wish she could come and live
with us. She says she is pining away in H. for it's a dull hole. She
says she can't stand these _cramping conditions_. In St. Polten she
spent all her pocket money upon flowers for _him_. She always said that
she had to buy such a lot of copybooks and things for school. That's
where she's lucky not to be at home, for I could not easily take in
Mother like that. It would not work. One always has too little pocket
money anyhow, and when one lives at home one's parents know just what
copybooks one has. I should like to go away from home for a few months.
Ada says it is very good for one, for then one learns to know the world;
at home, she says, one only grows _musty_ and _fusty_. When she talks
like that she really looks like an actress and she certainly has talent;
her German master at school says so too. She can recite long poems and
the girls are always asking the master to let her recite.

August 30th. To-day Ada recited Geibel's poem, The Death of Tiberius, it
was splendid; she is a born actress and it's a horrid shame she can't go
on the stage; she is to teach French or sewing. But she says she's going
on the stage; I expect she will get her way somehow.

August 31st. Oswald's having a fine long fortnight; he's still there
and can stay till September 4th!! If it had been Dora or me. There would
have been a frightful hulabaloo. But Oswald may do _anything_. Ada says:
We girls must take for ourselves what the world won't give us of its own
free will.

September 5th. In the forest the other day I promised Ada to ask Mother
to let her come and stay with us so that she could be trained for the
stage. I asked Mother to-day, but she said it was quite out of the
question. Ada's parents simply could not afford it. If she has talent,
the thing comes of itself and she need only go to a school of Dramatic
Art so that she could more easily get a good Theatre says Ada. So I
don't see why it should be so frightfully expensive. I'm awfully sorry
for Ada.

September 10th. Oh we have all been so excited. I've got to pack up my
diary because we're going home to-morrow. I must write as quickly as I
can. There have been some gypsies here for three days, and yesterday one
of the women came into the garden through the back gate and looked at
our hands and told our fortunes, mine and Ada's and Dora's. Of course we
don't believe it, but she told Ada that she would have a great but short
career after many difficult struggles. That fits in perfectly. But she
made a frightful mess of it with me: Great happiness awaits me when I am
_as old again as I am now_; a great passion and great wealth. Of course
that must mean that I am to marry at 24. At 24! How absurd! Dora says
that I look much younger than 12 so that she meant 20 or even 18. But
that's just as silly, for Dr. H., who is a doctor and knows so many
girls, says I look _older_ than my age. So that it's impossible that
the old gypsy woman could have thought I was only 10 or even 9. Dora's
fortune was that in a _few_ years she was to have much trouble and then
happiness. And she told Ada that her line of life was broken!!

September 14th. Oswald left early this morning, Father kissed him on
both cheeks and said: For God's sake be a good chap this last year at
school. He has to matriculate this year, it's frightfully difficult. But
he says that anyone who has cheek enough can get through all right. He
says that cheek is often more help than a lot of swoting and grinding.
I know he's right; but unfortunately at the moment it never occurs to
me what I ought to do. I often think afterwards, you ought to have said
this or that. Hella is really wonderful; and Franke too, though she's
not particularly clever, can always make a smart answer. If only half
of what Oswald says he says to the professors is true, then I can't
understand why he is not expelled from every Gym. says Mother. Oswald
says: If one only puts it in the right way no one can say anything. But
that doesn't hold always.

September 16th. Hella is coming back to-day. That's why I'm writing in
the morning, because she's coming here in the afternoon. I'm awfully
glad. I have begged Mother to buy a lovely cake, one of the kind Hella
and I are both so fond of.

September 20th. Only a word or two. School began again to-day. Thank
goodness Frau Doktor M. still takes our class. Frl. Steiner took her
doctor's degree at the end of the school year. In history we have a new
Frau Doktor, but we don't know her name yet. The Vischer woman has been
_married_ in the holidays!!! It's enough to make one split with laughing