done that for him, and she did not know how she could propose
_that_ to him even _if_ she had been willing to. Besides, it is
generally the man concerned who asks it of the girl. And when I said:
"But just imagine, what would you do if you got a baby that way," and
she said: "That does not come into the question, for when a man has
venereal disease it is _impossible_ to have a child by him. But after
all, only a woman who has had a baby can become a true artist." Franke,
who has a cousin on the stage said something of the same sort to Hella
and me; but we thought, Franke's cousin is only in the Wiener Theatre,
and that might be true there; but it may be quite different in the Burg
Theatre and in the Opera and even in the People's Theatre. I told Ada
about this, and she said: Oh, well, I'm only a girl from the provinces,
but I have known for ages that _every_ actress has a child.

23rd. Ada really is a born artist, to-day she read us a passage from a
splendid novel, but oh, how wonderfully, even Dora said: "Ada, you are
really phenominal!" Then she flung the book away and wept and sobbed
frightfully and said: "My parents are sinning against their own flesh
and blood; but they will rue it. Do you remember what the old gypsy
woman foretold of me last year: 'A _great_ but _short_ career after
many difficult struggles; and my line of life is broken!' That will
all happen as predicted, and my mother can recite that lovely poem of
Freiligrath's or Anastasius Grun's, or whosever it is 'Love as long
as thou canst, love as long as thou mayst. The hour draws on, the hour
draws on, when thou shalt stand beside the grave and make thy moan.'"
Then Ada recited the whole poem, and when I went to bed I kept on
thinking of it and could not go to sleep.

August 24th. To-day I ventured to ask Ada about the sleep-walking, and
she said that it was really so, when she walked in her sleep it was
always at _that time_ and when the moon is full. The first time, it was
last year, she did it on purpose in order to frighten her mother, when
her mother had first told her she would not be allowed to go on the
stage. It does not seem to me a very clever idea, or that she is likely
to gain anything by it. The day after to-morrow someone is coming to
fetch her home, and for that reason she was crying all the morning.

August 25th. Hella was here to-day with her mother and Lizzi. Hella had
a splendid time in Gastein. She wanted to have a private talk wi