You may think yourself highly honored at my sitting down to write to you at this hour; it is 2 A.M., and I am dead tired. My dear Nesti, we are in a whirl. Fred and his friends are back from Raigern, and have brought some officers with them. Old Countess Aarheim and her four daughters are staying here; the lake is hard frozen, and the snow a foot deep. Our mornings are spent in visiting the stables and riding school; after luncheon we skate or go sleighing; in the evening we play games, or dance, or just simply lounge about. Cloclo, to my infinite amusement, has set up a furious flirtation with the count; Mitzi is still pining with love for Fred; and as for Kitzi and Pips, they remain faithful to each other, and will carry the day yet. What can parents do when their children won’t give in? It would be too absurd for a captain to marry on his pay. He certainly would not be my taste, but the two geese reply to every common-sense remonstrance that they love each other. As if they could have any reason more senseless for making each other miserable. The count has quite joined the masculine community, and is first and foremost among them; he has given up paying compliments, and, do you know, my dear, I have made up my mind to accept him. Fred, who of course scented at once the meaning of the count’s visit, is behaving so sensibly that one cannot praise him enough; he really is a dear old fellow. Do you remember at the last carnival his wearing my colors, and yet, even then, he never breathed a word to trouble me, nor has he now. This morning I was trying the paces of a foal, and Fred, whip in hand, came up. “How do you like the count?” said he. “I think him a capital fellow, and he has thirty thousand pounds a year.” “And not a single racer,” said I; upon which, with a sly look, he replied: “That will soon be altered. If you should want a first-rate master of the hounds, think of a friend at Rahn up in the mountains----” I should think I would! He shall be one of the first I invite in my new home, to make people sociable together.