January 3rd. Still 2 hours, it's awful, Hella is coming to fetch me at
half past 3. In school to-day we kept on looking at one another, and all
the other girls thought it must be something to do with a man. Goodness,
what do we care about a man now! We had a splendid idea, that we had
just time to make a memento for _her_, since she does not leave until
the evening of the 5th. I am having traced on a piece of yellow silk
for a book marker an edelweiss and her monogram E. T., the new one of
course. Hella is painting a paperknife in imitation of tarsia mosaic.
I would rather have done something of that sort too, but I have no
patience for such work, so I often spoil it before I've finished. But
one can't very well spoil a piece of embroidery. But I shan't get the
tracing on the silk back from the shop until half past 3, so I shall
have to work all night and the whole day to-morrow.

Evening. Thank goodness and confound it, whichever way you like to
take it, the idiot at the shop had forgotten about the bookmarker and I
shan't get it until to-morrow morning early. So I'm able to write now:
It was heavenly! We had to walk up and down in front of her house for
at least half an hour, until at last it was 5 minutes past 4. She was so
sweet to us! She wanted to say Sie to us, but we _simply would not
have it_, and so she said Du as she used to. We talked of all sorts of
things, I don't know what, only that I suddenly burst out crying, and
then she drew me to her b -- --, no, I can't write that about her; she
drew me to herself and than I felt _her heart beating!_ and went almost
crazy. Hella says that I put both my arms round her neck, but I'm sure
that's all imagination, for I should never have dared. She has such
fascinating hands, and the _wedding ring_ glistens so on her divine
ring finger. Of course we talked about the school, and then she suddenly
said: Tell me what really happened about those compositions, when half
the class deliberately refrained from putting any punctuation marks.
"Oh," we said, "that is a frightful cram, it wasn't _half_ the class,
but only 6 of us who have a special veneration for you." Then we told
her how it all came about. She laughed a little, and said: "Well, girls,
you did not do me any particular _service_. It really was a great piece
of impertinence." But I said: "Prof. Fritsch's remarks were 10 times
more impertinent, for they related to another member of the staff, and
what was worse to you." Then she said: "My darling girls, that often
happens in life, that the absent are given a bad reputation, whether
justly or unjustly; one is liable to that in every profession." Hella
said that the head mistress was not like that or there would have been a
frightful row, since the matter had become known in all the High Schools
of Vienna. Then Frau Doktor M. said: "Yes, the Frau Direktorin is really
a splendid woman." Then there came something glorious, or really 2
glorious things: (1). She gave us some magnificent sweets, better than I
have ever eaten before. Hella agrees, and we are really connoisseurs in
the matter of sweets. The second thing, even more glorious, was this:
after we had been there some time, there was a knock at the door and in
came _her_ husband, the Herr Prof., and said: "How are you my treasure?"
and to us: "Goodday, young _ladies_." Then she introduced us, saying:
"Two of my best-loved pupils and my most faithful adherents." Then the
Herr Prof. laughed a great deal and said: "That can't be said of all
pupils." So I said quickly: "Oh yes, it can be said of Frau Doktor, the
whole class would go through fire for her." Then he went away, and she
said: "Excuse me for a moment," and we could hear quite plainly that _he
kissed her_ in the next room, and then she said as she came in again:
"Oh well, be off with you, Karl, goodbye." It's a pity his name is Karl,
it's so prosaic, and he calls her Lise, and I expect when they are alone
he calls her Lieschen, since he is a North German. I must go to bed,
it's half past 11 already. To be continued to-morrow. Sleep well, my
sweet glorious ecstatic golden and only treasure! God, I am so happy.

January 6th. Thank goodness to-day is a holiday, and we can't go
tobogganing because Dora has a _chill!!!_ I got the bookmarker on the
4th, worked at it all day and up till midnight, and yesterday I got up
at half past 5, went on working the whole morning, and at 2 o'clock we
took our mementoes to the house. Though we should have liked to give
them to her ourselves, we didn't, but only gave them to the maid. She
said: Shall I show you in? but Hella said: "No, thank you, we don't want
to disturb Frau Theyer, and when I reproached her for this she said: Oh
no, it was better not; you are quite upset anyhow, you know what _she_
said: But my dear child, you will make yourself ill; you must not do
that on _my_ account!" Oh dear, I'm crying so that I can hardly write,
but I _must_ write, for there is still so much that's glorious to put
down, things that I must never, never forget, even if it should take me
a week to write. The great thing is that I shall simply live upon this
memory, and the only thing I want in life is that I may see _her_ once
more. Of course we took her some flowers on Friday, I lilies of the
valley with violets and tuberoses, and Hella Christmas roses. She was
delighted, and went directly to fetch 2 vases which her mother brought
in. She is as small as Frau Richter, and her hair is grey, she is
charming; but she is not in the least like Frau Doktor M. When we said
goodbye she offered us still more sweets, but since we were both nearly
crying already we did not want to take any more, but she wrapped them
nearly all up for us, saying: "To console you in your sorrow." From
anyone else it might have sounded ironical, but from her it was simply
lovely. There were 17 large sweets, and Hella gave me 9 of them and took
only 8 for herself. I shall eat only one every day, so that they will
last me 9 days. _Joy and sorrow combined!!_ Hella is not so frightfully
in love as I am, and yesterday she said, in joke of course: "It seems to
me that your whole world is foundered; I must pull you out, or you'll
be drowned." And then she asked me how I could have been so stupid as to
use the word _honeymoon_ to _her_, although she hemmed to warn me.
She said it really was utterly idiotic of me, and that the Frau Prof.
blushed. I did not notice it myself, but when her _husband_ came in, she
certainly did flush up like anything. Hella and I talked of quite a lot
of _other things of that sort_. I should so much have liked to ask her
whether she has given up going to church, for I think the Herr Prof.
really is a Jew, though he does not _look_ like one. For lots of other
men wear black beards. But I did not venture to ask, and Hella thinks
it is a very good thing I did not, for one _does not talk about such