t she can sit quite comfortably when she is
reading. For Father we have bought a new brief bag because his own is so
shabby that it makes us quite ashamed; but he always says: "It will do
for a good while yet." For a long time I did not know what to get for
Aunt Dora, and at length we have decided upon a lace fichu; for she is
awfully fond of lace. I am giving Hella a sketch book and a pencil case;
she draws beautifully and will perhaps become an artist, for Dora I am
getting a vanity bag and for Oswald a cigarette case with a horse's head
on it, for he is frightfully taken up with racing and the turf.

December 16th. Owing to Mother's illness I've had simply no time to
write anything about the school, although there has been a _great
deal_ to write about, for example that Prof. W. is very friendly again,
although he no longer gives us lessons, and that most of the girls can't
bear the Nutling because she makes such favourites of the Jewish girls.
It's quite true that she does, for example Franke, who is never any
good, will probably get a Praiseworthy in Maths and Physics; and she
lets Weinberger do anything she likes. I always get Excellent both
for school work and prep.; so it really does not matter to me, but
Berbenowitsch is frightfully put out because she is no longer the
favourite as she was with Frau Doktor St. The other day it was quite
unpleasant in the Maths lesson. In the answer to a sum there happened
to be 1-3, and then the Nutling asked what 1-3 would be as a decimal
fraction; so we went on talking about recurring [periodic] decimals and
every time she used the word _period_, some of the girls giggled, but
luckily some of them were Jews, and she got perfectly savage and simply
screamed at us. In Frau Doktor St's lesson in the First, some of the
girls giggled at the same thing and she went on just as if she had not
noticed it, but afterwards she always spoke of _periodic places_, and
then one does not think of the real meaning so much. Frau Doktor F. said
she should complain to Frau Doktor M. about our unseemly behaviour.
But really all the girls had not giggled, for ex. Hella and I simply
exchanged glances and understood one another at once. I can't endure
that idiotic giggling.

December 20th. Oswald came home to-day; he's fine. It's quite true that
he has really had a moustache for a long time, but was not allowed to
grow it at the Gymnasium; in boarding schools the barber comes every
Saturday, and the