secrets of the heart must not be disclosed. Never mind Gretl,
it does not matter at your age, for things don't cut deep." But she was
rightly paid out: Frau von Tr. and Father roared with laughter and Frau
v. Tr. said: "Why, grandmother, have you been looking at your white hair
in the glass?" Oh, how I did laugh, and she was so frightfully put out
that she blushed like fire, and in the evening _she_ said to _me_ that
I was an ill-mannered pig. That's why I did not tell her that she'd left
her composition book on the table and to-morrow she has to give it in.
It's all the same to _me_, for I'm an ill-mannered pig.

December 9th. It's awful. At 2 o'clock this afternoon Hella was taken to
the Low sanatorium and was operated on at once. Appendicitis. Her mother
has just telephoned that the operation has been successful. But the
doctors said that 2 hours later it would have been too late. My knees
are trembling and my hand shakes as I write. She has not slept off the
anisthetic yet.

December 10th. Hella is frightfully weak; no one can see her except her
father and mother, not even Lizzi. On St. Nicholas Day we had such a
jolly time and ate such a lot of sweets that we almost made ourselves
sick. But its impossible that she got appendicitis from that. On Monday
evening, when we were going home after the gym lesson, she said she
did not feel at all well. The night before last she had a rigor and the
first thing in the morning the doctor said that she must go to hospital
at once for an operation.

December 11th. All the girls at school are frightfully excited about
Hella, and Frau Dr. St. was awfully nice and put off mathematics till
next Tuesday. On Sunday I am going to see Hella. She does want to see me
so and so do I want to see her.

December 12th. She is still very weak and doesn't care about anything; I
got her mother to take some roses and violets from me, she did like them
so much.

December 14th. This afternoon I was with Hella from two until a quarter
to 4. She is so pale and when I came in we both cried such a lot. I
brought her some more flowers and I told her directly that when he sees
me Prof. W. always asks after her. So do the other members of the staff
especially Frau Doktor M. The girls want to visit her but her mother
won't let them. When anyone is lying in bed they look quite different,
like strangers. I said so to Hella, and she said: We can never be
strangers to one another, not even in death. Then