s her sister
got, things for her _trousseau!_ And the Bs. Christmas tree cost 12
crowns whilst ours cost only 7, though ours was just as good. So I think
that the Bs. really have plenty of money, and I said to Hella: "You must
be enormously rich." And she said: "Oh well, not so rich as all that; I
must not expect to marry an officer on the general staff. Lizzi has done
very well for herself for Paul is a baron and is very well off. He is
frantically in love with her; queer taste, isn't it?" I quite agree, for
Lizzi has not much to boast of in the way of looks, beautiful fair hair,
but she is so awfully thin, not a trace of b -- --, Hella has much more
figure. And if one hasn't any by the time one is 20 one is not likely to
get one.

Something awfully funny happened to-day. Hella asked me: "I say, what's
the Christian name of that Dr. who is dangling after your sister?" Then
it struck me for the first time that on his visiting card he only has
Dr. jur. A. Pruckmuller, and then I remembered that last summer, when we
first made his acquaintance, Dora said, It's a pity he's called August,
the name does not suit him at all. Well, we laughed till we felt quite
ill, for of course Hella began to sing: "O du lieber Augustin," and
then I thought of Der dumme August [clown's nickname in circus] and we
wondered what Dora would call him. Gusti or Gustel, or Augi, my darling
Augi, my beloved Gusterl, oh dear, we were in fits of laughter. Then
we discussed what names we should like to have for our husbands, and I
said: Ewald or Leo, and Hella said: Wouldn't you like Siegfried? But I
put my hand on her mouth and said: "Shut up, or you will make me really
angry, _that_ is and must remain forgotten." She said what she would
like best would be to have a husband called Peter or Thamian or
Chrysostomus; then for a pet name she would use Dami or Sosti; and then
she said quite seriously that she would only marry a man called Egon, or
Alexander, or at least Georg. Just at that moment her mother came in to
call us to tea, and she said: "What's an that about Alexander and Georg?
You are such dreadful girls. If you are alone together for a couple
of minutes (I had come at half past 2 and the Brs. have tea at 4,
and that's what Hella's mother calls 2 minutes), you begin to talk of
unsuitable things." Hella was afraid her mother would think God knows
what, so she said: "Oh no, Mother, we were only discussing what names we
should like our fiances to