[ . . . ] I had reached the ninth year, I needed constant occupation and I had so much to learn yet, which, though I was entrusted to such outstanding hands, neither my mother, nor Jameson nor Kuschel could teach me.
[ . . . ]
Boarding house establishments did not exist in our parts then, and they could not exist; indeed, I even think that one hardly had any idea about the nature of such a fostering institution.
Separating from one’s child to have it educated in a strange house by strangers was something unthinkable to mothers in those days; [ . . . ]
My mother, who otherwise tended to give in all the time, had immediately spoken out against hiring a governess in a manner that showed clearly how little she was prepared to share with a strange woman both the love and supervision of her children. “They may learn from others, for I know too little to teach them, but no one else but I shall raise them,” she replied to my father, for which he would subsequently reproach my mother sometimes, when we had committed some kind of naughtiness.
In addition, even if she had held a different view, finding the type of governess my father desired, would nevertheless have been a difficult wish to fulfill. [ . . . ]
However, coincidence [ . . . ] favored [ . . . ] my father’s wishes for the welfare of his children; suddenly and unexpectedly, chance brought to him fulfillment of those wishes, in fact from a city, from which one would never have expected it, from Stockholm.
Just about this time, a beautiful Swedish princess [ . . . ] had worn out her last children’s shoes. [ . . . ] a French junior governess, who for many years had lived very closely to the princess, allowed herself, by the very modest dictates of her heart, to be led to the city of Danzig, which was entirely unknown to her [ . . . ].
This [keeping the girl occupied] had also taken place almost to excess; Jameson, Kuschel, the dancing teacher, and a dear old woman, who came to teach me sewing and darning fine undergarments took up my morning hours until noon; at two o’clock, I was taken to Mademoiselle Ackermann, where we stayed until seven o’clock; and upon returning home, I often found my friendly Jameson waiting for me, spending the last evening hour before supper there quite cheerfully.
My new teacher had scarcely spent a few months instructing me when I already began, to the astonishment of tous le monde, to chat French so fluently as if I had done nothing else all my whole life; however, considering my early acquaintance with this language, continued with my father’s help, though very imperfect, this was nothing extraordinary, but no one thought of that. Because of the little parrot I was, Mademoiselle Ackermann soon became so well known and famous that in no time she had a choice among the young daughters of Danzig’s foremost families. In far less than a year’s time, the number of her pupils was complete, of whom she had promised my father to take on no more than twelve, something she always kept sincerely. Besides, she was indeed fully occupied with us.
print version
return to list
previous document