The Public Secret

I have been neglecting my diary of late, but now I have some important news. It seems I am to become an aunt and my sister-in-law has written me a letter, which I received today, saying: 'Dearest Nanny-kin, I will make such a fuss over you when you come to Vienna and stay with my little family,' (clearly her head is not the best developed part of her), 'and I hope,' she continues, 'that I will soon be introducing you to our friends as Frau d'Yppold! Frau d'Ypp - who? This is Papa's unfortunate and misleading gossip to his son, which is wildly out of date. Next, he will be telling the whole of Austria that I am to marry the Baron von Sonnenburg, who has just lost his second wife. Either that or they will wed me to the moon and I will become a very old piece of cheese. N.