her holidays. Hella did hers very well too and Frau
Doktor said again, very good. Then the bell rang.
In the long interval Frau Doktor played dodge with
us. It was great fun. I was it six times. In the
little intervals we were quite alone for the staff has
such a lot to do drawing up the time-table. A pupil-
teacher from the F. high school is in our class. She
sits on the last bench for she is very tall. As tall as
Frau Doktor.

September 26th. To-day we had Professor Riegel
for the first time in natural history. He wears eye-
glasses and never looks any of us in the face. And
in French Madame A. said that my accent was the
best. We've got an awful lot on and I don't know
whether I shall be able to write every day. The
younger girls say Professor Igel instead of Riegel
and the Weinmann girl said Nikel.

September 30th. I've had simply no time to write.
Hella hasn't written anything since the 24th. But
I must write to-day for I met Robert in Schottengasse.
Good morning, Miss, you needn't be so stuck
up, he said as he went by. And when I turned round
he had already passed, or I would have given him a
piece of my mind. I must go to supper

October 1st. I can't write, Oswald has come from
S., he has sprained his ankle, but I'm not so sure
because he can get about. He is awfully pale and
doesn't say a word about the pain.

October 4th. To-day is a holiday, the emperor's
birthday. Yesterday Resi told me something horrid.
Oswald can't go back to S. He has been up to something,
I wish I knew what, perhaps something in the
closet. He always stays there such a long time, I
noticed that when I was in the country. Or perhaps
it may have been something in his society. Inspee
pretends she knows what it is but of course it isn't
true, for she doesn't know any more than I do.
Father is furious and Mother's eyes are all red with
crying. At dinner nobody says a word. If I could
only find out what he's done. Father was shouting
at him yesterday and both Dora and I heard what he
said: You young scamp (then there was something
we couldn't understand) and then he said, you attend
to your school books and leave the girls and the
married women alone you pitiful scoundrel. And Dora
said. Ah, now I understand and I said: Please tell
me, he is my brother as well as yours. But she said:
"You wouldn't understand. It's not suitable for such
young ears." Fancy that, it's suitable for her ears,
but not mine though she's not quite three years older
than I am, but because she no longer wears a short
skirt she gives herself the airs of a grown-up _lady_.
Such airs, and then she sneaks a great spoonful of
jam so that her mouth is stuffed with it and she can't
speak. Whenever I see her do this, I make a point
of speaking to her so that she has to answer. She
does get in such a wax.

October 9th. I know all about it now. . . That's
how babies come. And _that_ is what Robert really
meant. Not for me, thank you, I simply won't marry.
For if one marries one has to do it; it hurts frightfully
and yet one has to. What a good thing that I know
it in time. But I wish I knew exactly how, Hella
says she doesn't know exactly herself. But perhaps
her cousin who knows everything about it will tell
her. It lasts nine months till the baby comes and
then a lot of women die. It's horrible. Hella has
known it for a long time but she didn't like to tell me.
A girl told her last summer in the country. She
wanted to talk about it to Lizzi her sister, really she
only wanted to ask if it was all true and Lizzi ran
off to her mother to tell her what Hella had said
And her mother said; "These children are awful,
a corrupt generation, don't you dare to repeat it to
any other girl, to Grete Lainer, for instance," and
she gave her a box on the ear. As if she could help
it! That is why she didn't write to me for such a
long time. Poor thing, poor thing, but now she can
tell me all about it and we won't betray one another.
And that deceitful cat Inspee has known all about
it for ages and has never told me. But I don't understand
why that time at the swing Robert said: You
little fool, you wont get a baby simply from that.
Perhaps Hella knows. When I go to the gymnastic
lesson to-morrow I shall talk to her first and ask her
about it. My goodness how curious I am to know.

October 10th. I'm in a great funk, I missed my
gymnastic lesson yesterday. I was upstairs at Hella's
and without meaning it I was so late I did not dare
to go. And Hella said I had better stay with her
that we would say that our sum was so difficult that
we had not got it finished in time. Luckily we really
had a sum to do. But I said nothing about it at
home, for to-morrow Oswald is going to G. to Herr