s will take it over." We
don't know whether he really noticed nothing or simply did not wish
to show that he had noticed. But as we shut the door I felt so awfully
sorry; for it was the last time, the very last time.

February 27th. In Natural History to-day I got _Unsatisfactory_. I
was not being questioned, but when Klaiber could not answer anything I
laughed, and he said: Very well, Lainer, you correct her mistake. But
since I had been thinking of something quite different I did not know
what it was all about, and so I got an Unsatisfactory. _Before_ of
course that would not have mattered; but now since . . . Hella and
Franke did all they could to console me and said: "That does not matter,
it wasn't an examination; he'll _have_ to examine you properly later."
Anyhow Franke thinks that however hard I learn, I shall be well off if
he gives me a Satisfactory. She says no professor can forget _such a
defeat_. For we told her about the silly little fools. She said, indeed,
that we had made it too obvious. That's not really true. But now she
takes our side, for she sees that we were in the right. Verbenowitsch
and Bennari bring in the things now. They are much better suited for it.
Hella's father did not like her doing it anyhow; he says: The porter
or the maidservant are there for that--we never see them all the year
round, that's a fine thing.

March 8th. Easter does not come this year until April 16th. I am going
with the Bruckners to Cilli, outside the town there they have a vineyard
with a country house. Hella needs a change. I am awfully glad. All the
flowers begin to come out there at the end of March or beginning of
April.

March 12th. Hella is not straightforward. We met a gentleman to-day,
very fashionably dressed with gold-rimmed eyeglasses and a fair
moustache. Hella blushed furiously, and the gentleman took off his hat
and said: Ah, Fraulein Helenchen, you are looking very well. How are
you? He never looked at me, and when he had gone she said: "That was Dr.
Fekete, who assisted at my operation."--"And you tell me _that_ now for
the first time?" Then she put on an innocent air and said: "Of course,
we've never met him before," but I said: "I don't mean _that_. If you
knew how red you got you would not tell me a lie." Then she said: "What
am I telling you a lie about? Do you think I'm in love with him? Not in
the very least."--But when one is _not_ in love one does not blush like
that. Anyhow I shan't tell