ld other views."

September 8th. Thank goodness we are going home the day after to-morrow.
It really has been rather dull here, certainly I can't join in the paean
Hella sang about the place last year; of course they were not staying in
the Edelweiss boarding house but in the Hotel Kaiser von Oesterreich.
It makes a lot of difference _where_ one is staying. By the way, it
has just occurred to me. The young wife who had the eruption after
_infection_ can't have been divorced, as Hella wrote me the week before
last; for her husband has been there on a visit, he is an actor at the
Theatre Royal in Munich. So it would seem that actors really are all
_infected_; and Hella always says it is only officers! She takes rather
an exaggerated view.

September 14th. We have been back in Vienna since the 11th, but I have
been absolutely unable to write, though there was plenty to write about.
For the first person I met when I went out on the 11th to fetch
some cocoa which Resi had forgotten, was Lieutenant R. Viktor, _the
Conqueror!!_ Of course he recognised me immediately, and was awfully
friendly, and _walked with me a little way_. He asked casually after
Dora, but it is obvious that he is not in love with her any more. And
it was so funny that he should not know that Dora had matriculated this
year and so would not be going to the High School any more. I did not
tell him that she intends to go on with her studies, for it is not
absolutely settled yet.

September 16th. Hella came home yesterday; I am so glad; I greeted her
with: _Hail!_ but she said; "don't be silly," besides, it's unsuitable
for an Austrian officer's daughter!!! Still, we won't quarrel about it
after 2 months' separation, and _Servus_ is very smart too though not
so distinguished. She told me a tremendous lot more about that young
married woman; some of the ladies in B. said that her cousin was _in
love_ with the husband. That would be awful, for then she would get
infected too; but Hella says she did not notice anything, though she
watched very closely during the fortnight he was there. He sang at two
of the musical evenings, but she did not see any sign of it. Lizzi
is _engaged_, but Hella could not write anything about it, for the
engagement is only being officially announced now that they are back in
Vienna; her fiance is Baron G. He is an attache in London, and she met
him there. He is madly in love with her. In August he was on leave, and
he came to B. to