Past!
8th July:
Remember that day. The 3rd friendship was sworn, the 8th you have proved it.
And on the next leaf,
Thank you!!
[Dried spray of birch]
Not past any more! These leaves are the witnesses of its ceasing to be past.
Taikowitz, the 19th July 1858.[[3]]
Here follows the elucidation of these enigmatical inscriptions:
One day I went into Elvira’s room, and, as was very often the case, found her sitting at her writing-desk. I came up to her and saw her hastily cover up the blank-book in which she had been writing.