September 25th. All the girls are madly in love with Professor Wilke the natural history professor. Hella and I walked behind him to-day all the way home. He is a splendid looking man, so tall that his head nearly touches the lamp when he stands up quickly, and a splendid fair beard like fire when the sun shines on it; a Sun God! we call him S. G., but no one knows what it means and who we are talking about.
September 29th. Schmolka has left, I suppose because of Frl. St.‘s vanity bag. Two other girls have left and three new one’s have come, but neither I nor Hella like them.
October 1st. It was my turn in Natural History to-day I worked frightfully hard and He was splendid. We are to look after the pictures and the animals all through the term. How jolly. Hella and I always wear the same coloured hair ribbons and in the Nat. Hist. lesson we always put tissue paper of the same colour on the desk. He wants us to keep notebooks, observations on Nature. We have bound ours in lilac paper, exactly the same shade as his necktie. On Tuesdays and Fridays we have to come to school at half past 8 to get things ready. Oh how happy I am.
October 9th. He is a cousin of our gymnastic master, splendid! This is how we found it out. We, Hella and I, are always going past the Cafe Sick because he always has his afternoon coffee there. And on Thursday when we passed by there before the gymnastic lesson there was the gymnastic master sitting with him. Of course we bowed to them as we passed and in the gymnastic lesson Herr Baar said to us: So you two are tormented and pestered by my cousin in natural history? “Pestered” we said, o no, it’s the most delightful lesson in the whole week. “Is that so?” said he, “I won’t forget to let him know.” Of course we begged and prayed him not to give us away, saying it would be awful. But we do hope he will.
October 20th. Frau Doktor Steiner’s mother is dead. We are so sorry for her. Some of us are going to the funeral, I mayn’t go, Mother says it is not suitable, and Hella is not allowed to go either, I wonder if He will go? I’m sure he will, for really he has to.
October 23rd. Frau Doktor St. looks frightfully pale. Franke says she will certainly get married soon now that both her parents are dead. Her fiance often fetches her from the Lyz, I mean he waits for her in L. Street. Hella thinks an awful lot of him of course, because he’s an officer. I don’t think much of him myself, he’s too short and too fat. He’s only a very little taller than Frl. St. I think a husband should be nearly a head taller than his wife, or at least half a head taller, like our Father and Mother.
October 29th. We have such a frightful lot of work to do that we’re not taking season tickets this winter, but are going to pay each time when we go skating. I wish we knew whether He skates, and where. Hella thinks that with great caution we might find out from his cousin during the gymnastic lesson. They are often together in the Cafe. I should like to know what they talk about, they are always laughing such a lot, especially when we go by.
October 31st. Ada has written to me. She is awfully unhappy. She is back in St. P., in a continuation school. But the actor is not there any more. She writes that she yearns to throw off her chains which lie heavy on her soul. Poor darling. No one can help her. That is, her Mother could help her but she won’t. It must be awful. Hella thinks that her parents will not allow her to go on the stage until she has tried to do herself a mischief; then things may be better. It’s quite true, what can her mother be thinking of when she knows how fearfully unhappy Ada is. After all, why on earth shouldn’t she go on the stage when she has so much talent? All her mistresses and masters at the middle school praised her reciting tremendously and one of them said in so many words that she had great dramatic talent. Masters don’t flatter one; except . . .; first of all He is not just an ordinary master but a professor, and secondly He is quite, quite different from all others When he strokes his beard I become quite hot and cold with extasy. And the way he lifts up his coat tails as he sits down. It’s lovely, I do want to kiss him. Hella and I take turns to put our penholder on his desk so that he can hallow it with his hand as he writes. Afterwards in the arithmetic lesson when I write with it, I keep looking at Hella and she looks back at me and we both know what the other is thinking of.
November 15th. It’s a holiday to-day so at last I can write once more. We have such a frightful lot to do that I simply can’t manage to write. Besides Mother is often ill. She has been laid up again for the last 4 days. It’s awfully dull and dreary. Of course I had time to write those days, but then I didn’t want to write. As soon as Mother is well again she’s going to the Lyz to ask how we are getting on I’m awfully glad because of S.G.
November 28th. Mother came to school to-day and saw him too. I took her to him and he was heavenly. He said: I am very pleased with your daughter; she’s very keen and clever. Then he turned over the pages of his notebook as if to look at his notes. But really he knows by heart how we all work. That is not all of course. That would be impossible with so many girls; and he teaches in the science school as well where there are even more boys than we are.