think that we shall go.

December 31st. I really have no time, since this is New Year's Eve, but
I simply _must_ write. Dora and I went skating this morning, and we met
Viktor on the ice; he went frightfully pale, saluted, and spoke to us;
Dora wished to pass on, but he detained her and said that she must allow
him to have a talk, so he came skating with us since she would not go to
a confectioner's with him. She was certainly quite right not to go to
a confectioner's. Of course I don't know what they talked about, but in
the afternoon Dora cried frightfully, and Viktor never said good-bye to
me; it's impossible that he can have forgotten, so either I must have
been too far away at the time, or else Dora did not want him to; most
likely the latter. I'm frantically sorry for him, for he is passionately
in love with her. But she won't come to her senses until it is too
late. I don't think she has said a word to Mother either. But all the
afternoon she was playing melancholy music, and that shows how much she
had felt it.

January 2nd. Yesterday I had no time to write because we had callers,
pretty dull for the most part, the Listes and the Trobisches; Julie Tr.
is such a stupid creature, and I don't believe she knows the first thing
about _those matters_; Annie is not quite all there, Lotte is the only
tolerable one. Still, since we played round games for prizes, it was not
as dull as it might have been, and Fritz and Rudl are quite nice boys.
In the evening Mother was so tired out that Father said he really must
put a stop to all this calling; I can't say I care much myself for
_that_ sort of visits, especially since Dora always will talk about
_books_. People always talk about such frightfully dull books whenever
they have nothing else to say. School began again to-day, with a German
lesson thank goodness. Though I'm not superstitious in general, I must
say I do like a good beginning. Besides, first thing in the morning we
met two chimneysweeps, and without our having tried to arrange it in any
way they passed us on our _left_. That ought to bring good luck.

January 5th. Most important, Hella since yesterday evening -- -- -- --!
She did not come to school yesterday, for the day before she felt
frightfully bad, and her mother really began to think she was going to
have another attack of appendicitis. Instead of that!!! She looks so ill
and interesting, I spent the whole afternoon and evening with her; and
at first she