Dora got, only one of them: At 7 o'clock just when
Father was lighting the candles on the tree, a commissionaire brought
some lovely roses with two sprays of mistletoe interwoven and beneath a
nosegay of violets -- -- -- of course from Dr. P. with a card, but she
would not let anyone read that. All she said was: "Dr. P. sends
everyone Christmas greetings; I believe he had really written: _Merry_
Christmas," but Dora did not dare to say _that_. Oh, and Hella gave me
a bead bag, and I gave her a purse with the double eagle on it, for she
wanted a purse that would have a military look. I never knew anyone with
such an enthusiasm for the army as Hella; certainly I think officers
look awfully smart; but surely it's going too far when she feels that
other men practically don't exist. The others have to learn a lot, for
example doctors, lawyers, mining engineers, not to speak of students
at the College of Agriculture, for perhaps these last "hardly count"
(that's the phrase Hella is always using); but all of them have to learn
a great deal more than officers do; Hella never will admit that, and
always begins to talk of the officers of the general staff; as if they
_all_ belonged to the general staff! We have often argued about it.
Still, I do hope she will get an officer for her husband, of course one
who is well enough off to marry, for otherwise it's no go; for Father
says the Bruckners have no private means. It's true he always says that
of us too, but I don't believe it; we are not so to say rich, but I
fancy we should both of us have enough money for an officer to be able
to marry us. Anyhow, Dora voluntarily renounces that possibility, _if_
she is really going to marry Dr. P.

27th. Well, I went to Hella's yesterday and stayed till 9, and on
Christmas Day she was here. I see that I wrote above that the Bs. were
not well off; it seems to me to be very much the reverse. We always get
a great many things and very nice ones at Christmas and on our birthdays
and name days (of course Protestants don't have these last), but we
don't give one another such splendid things as the Bs. do. Hella had
been given a piece of rose-coloured silk for a dress to wear at the
dancing class which must have cost at least 50 crowns, and a lace collar
and cuffs, which we had seen at the shop, and it had cost 24 crowns,
then she had a gold ring with an emerald, and a number of smaller things
which she never even looked at. And to see all the thing