a good impression especially in his new tourist getup
and leather breeches. Grandmama and Grandpapa
sent love to all. I've never seen them. They have
sent a lot of cakes and sweets and Oswald grumbled
no end because he had to bring them. Oswald is
always smoking cigarettes and Father said to him:
Come along old chap, we'll go to the inn and have a
drink on the strength of your good report. It seems
to me rather funny; no one wants to drink anything
when Dora and I have a good report, at most they
give us a present. Oswald has only Twos and Threes
and very few Ones and in Greek nothing but Satis-
factory, but I have nothing but Ones. He said something
to Father in Latin and Father laughed heartily
and said something I could not understand. I don't
think it was Latin, but it may have been Magyar or
English. Father knows nearly all languages, even
Czech, but thank goodness he doesn't talk them unless
he wants to tease us. Like that time at the station
when Dora and I were so ashamed. Czech is horrid,
Mother says so too. When Robert pretends to speak
Czech it's screamingly funny.

August 3rd. I got a chill bathing the other day
so now I am not allowed to bathe for a few days.
Robert keeps me company. We are quite alone and
he tells me all sorts of tales. He swings me so high
that I positively yell. To-day he made me really
angry, for he said: Oswald is a regular noodle. I
said, that's not true, boys can never stand one another.
Besides, it is not true that he lisps. Anyhow I
like Oswald much better than Dora who always says
"the children" when she is talking of me and of Hella
and even of Robert. Then he said: Dora is just as
big a goose as Erna. He's quite right there. Robert
says he is never going to smoke, that it is so vulgar,
that real gentlemen never smoke. But what about
Father, I should like to know? He says, too, that he
will never grow a beard but will shave every day and
his wife will have to put everything straight to him.
But a beard suits Father and I can't imagine him
without a beard. I know I won't marry a man without
a beard.

August 5th. We go to the tennis ground every
day. When we set off yesterday, Robert and I and
Liesel and Erna and Rene, Dora called after us:
The bridal pair in spee. She had picked up the
phrase from Oswald. I think it means in a hundred
years. _She_ can wait a hundred years if she likes, we
shan't. Mother scolded her like anything and said
she mustn't say such stupid things. A good job too;
in spee, in spee. Now we always talk of her as Inspee,
but no one knows who we mean.

August 6th. Hella can't come here, for she is going
to Klausenburg with her mother to stay with her
other uncle who is district judge there or whatever
they call a district judge in Hungary. Whenever I
think of a district judge I think of District Judge T.,
such a hideous man. What a nose and his wife is so
lovely; but her parents forced her into the marriage.
I would not let anyone force me into such a marriage,
I would much sooner not marry at all, besides she's
awfully unhappy.

August 7th. There has been such a fearful row
about Dora. Oswald told Father that she flirted
so at the tennis court and he could not stand it.
Father was in a towering rage and now we mayn't
play tennis any more. What upset her more than
anything was that Father said in front of me: This
little chit of 14 is already encouraging people to make
love to her. Her eyes were quite red and swollen
and she couldn't eat anything at supper because she
had such a _headache!!_ We know all about her headaches.
But I really can't see why I shouldn't go and
play tennis.

August 8th. Oswald says that it wasn't the
student's fault at all but only Dora's. I can quite
believe that when I think of that time on the Southern
Railway. Still, they won't let me play tennis any
more, though I begged and begged Mother to ask
Father to let me. She said it would do no good for
Father was very angry and I mustn't spend whole
days with the Warths any more. Whole days! I
should like to know when I was a whole day there.
When I went there naturally I had to stay to dinner
at least. What have I got to do with Dora's love
affairs? It's really too absurd. But grown-ups are
always like that. When one person has done anything
the others have to pay for it too.

August 9th. Thank goodness, I can play tennis
once more; I begged and begged until Father let me
go. Dora declares that nothing will induce her to ask!
That's the old story of the fox and the grapes. She
has been playing the invalid lately, won't bathe, and
stays at home when she can instead of going for