ever happened to me what many girls have told
me, even girls in the Fifth. No priest has ever asked me about the 6th
commandment; all they've asked is: In thought, word, or deed? Still, I
do hate going to confession, and so does Dora. It's much nicer for Hella
as a Protestant for they have no confession. And at communion I'm always
terrified that the host might drop out of my mouth. That would be awful.
I expect one would be immediately excommunicated as a heretic. Dora was
not allowed to come to confession and com., Father would not let her.
She must not go out without her breakfast.

April 26th. In the Third there really is a girl who dropped the host out
of her mouth. There was a frightful row about it. She said it was not
her fault the priest's hand shook so. It's quite true, he was very old,
and that is why I'm always afraid it will happen to me. It's much better
when the priest is young, because then that can never happen. Father
says that the girl won't be excommunicated for this, and luckily one of
her uncles is a distinguished prelate. He is her guardian too. That will
help her out.

April 27th. To-day we got to know this girl in the interval. She is
awfully nice and she says she really did not do it on purpose for she is
frightfully pious and perhaps she's going to be a nun. I am pious too,
we go to church nearly every Sunday, but I would not go into a convent,
not I. Dora says people generally do that when they've been crossed
in love, because then the world seems empty and hateful. She looked so
frightfully sentimental that I said: Seems to me you've a fancy that way
yourself? Then she said: "No, thank goodness, I've no reason for that."
Of course what she meant was that she was not crossed in love but the
other way. No doubt the tall man in the mornings. I looked hard at her
for a long time and said: "I congratulate you on your good fortune. But
Hella and I wish he was not bald," then she said with an astonished air:
"Bald? What are you talking about, he has the lofty brow of a thinker."

27th. To-day Mademoiselle came for the first time. I have forgotten to
say that Dora has to go out every day for two hours to sit and walk in
the sunshine. Since Mother is not very well and can't walk much, we've
engaged the Mad. Father says that when I have time I must go too "as
a precautionary measure." I don't like the idea at all, it's much too
dull; besides I have simply no time. Mad. is coming 3 times a week,
Mond