t Dora had said of Father. But I really
can't believe it. Because of Father I'm really sorry that I know it.
Perhaps it does not all happen the way Dora and Hella say. Generally I
can trust Hella, but of course she may be mistaken.

April 1st. To-day Dora told me a lot more. She is quite different now
from what she used to be. One does not say P[eriod], but M[enstruation].
Only common people say P--. Or one can say one's _like that_. Dora
has had M-- since August before last, and it is horribly disagreeable,
because men always know. That is why at the High School we have only
three men professors and all the other teachers are women. Now Dora
often does not have M-- and then sometimes it's awfully bad, and that's
why she's anemic. That men always know, that's frightfully interesting.

April 4th. We talk a lot about such things now. Dora certainly knows
more than I do, that is not more but better. But she isn't quite
straightforward all the same. When I asked her how she got to know about
it all, whether Erika told her or Frieda, she said: "Oh, I don't know;
one finds it all out somehow; one need only use one's eyes and one's
ears, and then one can reason things out a little." But seeing and
hearing don't take one very far. I've always kept my eyes open and I'm
not so stupid as all that. One must be told by some one, one _can't_
just happen upon it by oneself.

April 6th. I don't care about paying visits now. We used always to like
going to see the Richters, but to-day I found it dull. Now I know why
Dora hates going second class on the Metropolitan. I always thought it
was only to spite me because I like travelling second. She never likes
going second since _that_ happened. It seems one is often unjust to
people who never meant what one thought. But why did she not tell me the
truth? She says because I was still a child then. That's all right, but
what about this winter when I was cross because we went Third class to
Schonbrunn; I really believed she did it to annoy me, for I could not
believe she was afraid that in the second class, where one is often
alone, somebody would suddenly attack her with a knife. But now I
understand quite well, for of course she could not tell Mother the truth
and Father still less. And in winter and spring there are really often
no passengers to speak of on the Metropolitan, especially on the Outer
Circle.

April 7th. Mother said to-day that at the Richters yesterday we,
especially I, h