f a friendship is it when Mother says to Dora: You must not go out now,
the storm may break at any moment, and just the other evening: Dora you
_must_ take your shawl with you. Friendship between mother and daughter
is just as impossible as friendship between father and son. For between
friends there can be no orders and forbiddings, and what's even more
important is that one really can't talk about all the things that one
would like to talk of. All I said last night was: "Of course Mother has
forbidden you to talk to me about _certain things_; do you call that
a friendship?" Then she said very gently: "No, Rita, Mother has not
forbidden me, but I recognise now that it was thoughtless of me to talk
to you about those things; one learns the seriousness of life quite soon
enough." I burst out laughing and said: "Is _that_ what you call the
seriousness of life? Have you really forgotten how screamingly funny we
found it all? It seemed to me that your memory has been affected by the
mud baths." She did not answer that. I do hope Ada will come. For _I_
need _her_ now just as much as _she_ needs _me_.

August 4th. Glory be to God, Ada's coming, but not directly because they
begin their family washing on the 5th and no one can be spared to come
over with her till the 8th. I am so glad, the only thing I'm sorry about
is that _she_ will sleep in the dressing-room and not Dora. But Mother
says that Dora and I must stay together and that Ada can leave the door
into the dining-room open so that she won't feel lonely.

August 7th. The days are so frightfully long. Dora is as mild and
gentle as a nun, but she talks to me just as little as a nun, and she's
eternally with Mother. The two dachshunds have been sold to some one in
Neulengbach and so it is so horribly dull. Thank goodness Ada is coming
to-morrow. Father and I are going to meet her at the station at 6.

August 8th. Only time for a word or two. Ada is more than a head taller
than I am; Father said: "Hullo you longshanks, how you have shot up. I
suppose I must treat you as a grown-up young lady now? And Ada said:
Please, Herr Oberlandesgerichtsrat; please treat me just as you used to;
I am so happy to have come to stay with you." And her mother said: "Yes,
unfortunately she is happy anywhere but at home; _that is the way with
young people to-day_." Father helped Ada out and said: "Frau Haslinger,
the sap of life was rising in us once, but it's so long ago that we have
forgot