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210 SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
and for the first week she really did nothing but study
it from morning till night.
My brother, as soon as she arrived, told her that he
wanted to give a soirée in order to introduce her to all
his scientific friends. But she begged him to wait
until she could speak Swedish. This seemed to us
rather optimistic, but she kept her word. In a
fortnight she could speak a little, and during the first
winter she had mastered our literature, and had read
the "Frithiofs Saga"1 with delight.
This unusual talent for languages had its limitations.
She used to say that she had no real talent that way,
and had only learned several languages from necessity
and ambition. It is quite true that, notwithstanding
the quick results she obtained when she first learned
a language, she never acquired it to perfection, and
always forgot one language as soon as she learned
another. Though she was in Germany when quite a
young girl, she spoke the language very brokenly, and
her German friends used to laugh at the ridiculous and
often impossible words she coined. She never allowed
herself to be stopped in the flow of her conversation by
any such minor considerations as the correct choice of
words. She always spoke fluently, always succeeded
in expressing what she wanted to say, and in giving
an individual stamp to her utterances, however
imperfectly she spoke the language she was using. When
she had learned Swedish she had nearly forgotten all
her German, and when she had been away from Sweden
a few months, she spoke Swedish very badly on her
return. One of her characteristics was that when
tired or depressed she had great difficulty in finding
words; but when in good spirits she spoke rapidly
and with great elegance. Language, like everything
1 Appendix D.
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