lish.
After they had taken ten lessons, I began, to their great
despair, to speak English, and only gave them a Danish
translation when it was absolutely necessary. The result was
that they became so accustomed to English that it scarcely ever
occurs to them to speak Danish together; when one cannot get
away from me one must learn from me. The brothers and sisters
remaining behind are now also to go to school when they get
home, for they have recognised how pleasant it is to speak a
language which servants and those around one do not understand.
During all the winter my dearest thought was how, this summer,
I was going to visit my long, good friend, who was previously
lean and who is now fat, and how I should let him fatten me a
little, so as to be able to withstand better the long winter in
Russia; I would then in the autumn, like the bears, go into my
winter lair fat and sleek, and of all these romantic thoughts
none has materialised, but I have always had the joy of
thinking them and of continuing them; I can feel that I smile
when such ideas run through my mind. I am convinced that if I
had nothing else to do than to employ my mind with pleasant
thoughts, I should become fat on thoughts alone. The principal
reason why this real pleasure journey had to be postponed, was
that my eldest sister, Hanna, became ill about Easter, and it
was not until the end of June that she was well enough to
travel. I will not speak about the confusion which a sick lady
can cause in a bachelor's house, occasionally I almost lost my
patience. For the amount of roubles which that illness cost I
could very well have travelled to America and back again to St.
Petersburg; I have, however, the consolation in my reasonable
trouble that the money which the doctor and chemist have
received was well spent. The lady got about again after she had
caused me and Augusta just as much pain, if not more, than she
herself suffered. Perhaps you know how amiable people are when
they suffer from liver trouble; I hope you may never get it. I
am not anxious to have it either, for you may do what the devil
you like for such persons, and even then they are not
satisfied. We have had great festivals here by reason of the
Emperor's marriage; I did not move a step to see the pageantr