agement, and
Fraulein Thim was saying: "Not everyone has the luck to get a university
professor." That must have been about _her_. Certainly Thim won't get
one, not even a school porter. To-day, (I've been writing this up for
two days), I had such a delightful surprise; _she_ sent me her photo,
simply heavenly!! Father says the portrait is better looking than the
reality. Nothing of the sort, she is perfectly beautiful, with her
lovely eyes and her spiritual expression! Of course she has sent Hella
a photo too. We are going to have pocket leather cases made for the
photographs, so that we can take them with us wherever we go. But we
shall have to wait until after the holidays because Hella has lost her
money, and nearly all mine was used up in paying the excess fares.
And such a leather case will cost 3 crowns. Father has some untearable
transparent envelopes, and I shall ask him for two of them. They will do
as a makeshift.

Dora's matriculation is to-morrow, she's quite nervous about it although
she is very well up in all the subjects. But she says it's so easy to
make mistakes. But Father is quite unconcerned, though last year he was
very much bothered about Oswald, and poor dear Mother was frightfully
anxious: "Pooh," said Oswald, "I shall soon show them that there's no
need to bother; all one wants at the metric is _cheek_, that's the whole
secret!" And then all he telegraphed was "durch" [through] and
poor Mother was still very anxious, and thought that it might mean
_durchgefallen_ [failed]. But of course it really meant _durchgekommen_
[passed], for meanwhile the second telegram had come. And father had
brought two bottles of champagne to Rodaun, ready to celebrate Oswald's
return. There won't be anything of the sort after Dora's matriculation
because Mother is not with us any more; oh it does make me so miserable
when I think that 2 1/2 months ago she was still alive, and now -- -- --.

July 9th. This morning, while Dora was having her exam (she passed with
Distinction), I went to the cemetery quite alone. I told Aunt Dora I was
going shopping with Hella and her mother, and I told Hella I was going
with Aunt, and so I took the tram to Potzleinsdorf and then walked to
the cemetery. People always ought to go to the cemetery alone. There
was no one in the place but me. I did not dare to stay long, for I
was afraid I should be home late. It's a frightfully long way to
Potzleinsdorf, and it always seems so much fur