, when she used to say: Dor not! That meant: Dora
won't; little wretch! such a wilful little beast!

December 17th. Yesterday we had our first tobogganing party on the
Anninger; it was glorious, we kept on tumbling into the snow; the snow
lay fairly thick, especially up there, where hardly anyone comes. As we
were going home such a ridiculous thing happened to Hella; she caught
her foot on a snag and tore off the whole sole of a brand new shoe. She
had to tie it on with a string, and even then she limped so badly
that every one believed she had sprained her ankle tobogganing.
Her grandmother was frightfully angry and said: "That comes of such
_unladylike_ amusements!" Aunt Dora was very much upset, for she had
been with us, but Father said: Hella's grandmother is quite an old lady,
and in her day people had very different views in this respect. I should
say so, _in this respect_, Hella finds it out a dozen times a day, all
the things she must not say and must not do, and all the things which
are unsuitable for young girls! Her grandmother would like to keep her
under a glass shade; but not a transparent one, for she must not be able
to see out, and _no one_ must be able to see _in_. (The last is the main
point.)

December 20th. To-day was the last German lesson before Christmas,
and not a word more has been said about our affair. Hella has proved
splendidly right. Even Verbenowitsch, who curries favour with every
member of the staff, has congratulated her, and so has Hammer, who is
a newcomer and did not know Frau Doktor M. By the way, at 1 o'clock the
other day we met Franke; she goes now to a school of dramatic art, and
says that the whole tone of the place is utterly different, she is so
glad to have done with the High School. She had heard of the affair
with Prof. F. and she congratulated us upon our _strength of character_,
especially Hella of course. She says that the matter is common talk in
all the High Schools of Vienna, at least she heard of it from a girl at
the High School for the Daughters of Civil Servants, a girl whose sister
is at the School of Dramatic Art. She is very happy there, but she is
annoyed that such an institution should still be called a school; it's
not a _school_ in the least; we would be astonished to see how free they
all are. She is very pretty and has even more figure than she used
to have. She speaks very prettily too, but rather too loudly, so that
everyone turned round to look at u