r Hella, for Jeno,
Lajos, and Erno are her cousins, and one of them always rode close
beside her with his arm round her waist: but that would not quite do in
my case.

September 6th. Oh it is so glorious here. I like Jeno best, he goes
about with me everywhere and shows me everything; Hella is fondest of
Lajos and of Erno next. But Erno has still a great deal to learn, for
he was nearly flunked in his exam. Next year Lajos will be a lieutenant,
and this autumn Jeno is going to the military academy, Erno has a slight
limp, nothing bad, but he can't go into the army; he is going to be a
civil engineer, not here, he is to go to America some day.

I have time to write to-day, for all 4 of them have gone to S. on their
cycles and I have never learned.

It was lovely on the journey! It's so splendid to travel with an
officer, and still more when he is a colonel. All the stationmasters
saluted him and the guards could not do enough to show their respect. Of
course everyone thought I was his daughter, for he has always said "Du"
to me since I was quite a little girl. But to Ada Father always says
"Sie." We left the train at Forgacs or Farkas, or whatever it is called,
and Hella's father hired a carriage and it took us 2 hours to drive to
K-- M--. He was awfully jolly. We had our supper in F., though it was
only half past 6. It was a joke to see all the waiters tumbling over
each other to serve him. It s just the same with Father, except that the
stationmasters don't all salute. Father looks frightfully distinguished
too, but he is not in uniform.

Here is something awfully interesting: Herr von Kraics came yesterday
from Radufalva, his best friend left him the Radufalva estate out of
gratitude, because 8 years ago he gave up his fiancee with whom the
friend was in love. It's true, Colonel Bruckner says that K. is a
wretched milksop; but I don't think so at all; he has such fiery eyes,
and looks a real Hungarian nobleman. Hella says that he used to run
himself frantically into debt, because every six months he had an
_intimacy_ with some new woman; and all the presents he gave _reduced
him almost to beggary_. Still, it's difficult to believe that, for
however fond a woman may be of flowers and sweets, one does not quite
see why that should reduce anyone to beggary. Before we went to sleep
last night Hella told me that Lajos had already been "infected" more or
less; she says there is not an officer who has not got venereal di