She never likes
going second since _that_ happened. It seems one is often unjust to
people who never meant what one thought. But why did she not tell me the
truth? She says because I was still a child then. That's all right, but
what about this winter when I was cross because we went Third class to
Schonbrunn; I really believed she did it to annoy me, for I could not
believe she was afraid that in the second class, where one is often
alone, somebody would suddenly attack her with a knife. But now I
understand quite well, for of course she could not tell Mother the truth
and Father still less. And in winter and spring there are really often
no passengers to speak of on the Metropolitan, especially on the Outer
Circle.
April 7th. Mother said to-day that at the Richters yesterday we,
especially I, had been frightfully dull and stupid. Why had we kept on
exchanging glances? We had been most unmannerly. If she had only known
what we were thinking of when Frau Richter said, the weather to-day is
_certainly quite abnormal_; we have not had such _abnormal_ heat for
years. And then when Herr Richter came home and spoke about his brother
who had spent the whole winter at Hochschneeberg and said: Oh, my
brother is a little _abnormal_, I think he's got a tile loose in the
upper storey, I really thought I should burst. Luckily Frau R. helped
us once more to a tremendous lot of cake and I was able to lean well
forward over my plate.
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