school with us any longer, because the girls of the Fifth have
seen us several times, but he comes to meet Dora when she comes away at
1 o'clock. So quite early I telephoned to him at a public telephone call
office, for I did not dare to do it at home. Dora was so bad that she
could not go to school so I was going alone with Hella. I telephoned
saying a friend was ringing him up, that was when the maid answered the
telephone, and then she called him. I told him: that whatever happened
he was not to think unkindly of me and I must see him at 1 o'clock
because Dora was ill. He must wait at the corner of ---- Street. All
through lessons I was so upset that I don't in the least know what we
did. And at 1 o'clock he was there all right, and I told him all about
it and he was so awfully kind and he consoled me; _he_ consoled _me_.
That's quite different from the way Dora behaved. I was so much upset
that I nearly cried, and then he drew me into a doorway and _put his arm
round me_ and with his _own_ handkerchief wiped away my tears. I shall
never tell Dora about that. Then he asked me to be awfully kind to Dora
because she had such a _lot_ to bear. I don't really know _what_ she has
to bear, but still, for his sake, because it's really worth doing it for
that, after dinner I put a note upon her desk, saying: V. sends oceans
of love to you and hopes you will be all right again by Monday. At the
same time his best thanks for the book. I put the note in Heidepeter's
Gabriel, which she had lent to me to read and put it down very
significantly. When she read it she flushed up, swallowed a few times
and said: "Have you seen him? Where was it and when?" Then I told her
all about it and she was frightfully touched and said: "You really are
a good girl, only frightfully undependable." What do you mean,
undependable? She said: Yes undependable, for one simply must not blurt
out things in that way; never mind, I will try to forget. Have you
finished Heidepeter's Gabriel yet? "No," I said, "I'm not going to read
anyone's book with whom I'm angry." In the end we made it up, but of
course we did not talk any more about it and I did not say a word about
that business with the handkerchief.

May 29th. On June 10th or 12th, Mother and Dora are going to Frazensbad,
because they both have to take mud baths. Besides, Father says that a
change will give Dora new thoughts, so that she won't go about hanging
her head like a sick chicken. To-day Dora