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42
SÖNYA KOVALÉVSKY
much while my sister was studying also; moreover, I
had been such a little thing then that they did not
teach me seriously; but I entreated permission to be
present at my sister’s lessons, and listened to them
with so much attention that it often happened that
she, a big fourteen-year-old girl, did not know the
appointed lesson the next time, while I, a chit of seven
years, remembered it, and prompted her in it with
triumph. This was a great delight to me. But now
when my sister had ceased to study, and entered
into the rights of womanhood, the lessons lost half
their charm for me. I studied with considerable
industry it is true, but how I would have studied had
I had a companion!
At twelve o’clock comes breakfast. As soon as she
has swallowed her last morsel, the governess betakes
herself to the window to inspect the state of the
weather. I follow her with a trembling heart,
because this is a very important question to me. If the
thermometer indicates anything above 10° below zero1,
and there is no wind, I must take a tiresome walk of
an hour and a half with my governess, back and forth
on the alley, which has been cleared of snow. But if,
to my happiness, the cold is severe, or it is windy,
the governess takes herself off alone for the
walk,—inevitable, in her opinion,— and sends me up-stairs to
play ball in the hall by way of exercise.
I am not particularly fond of playing ball. I am
twelve years old now. I consider myself already
quite grown-up, and it is rather insulting to me that
the governess should think me capable of being
amused by such a childish entertainment as playing
ball; nevertheless, I hear her command with the
greatest satisfaction, because it presages an hour
and a half of freedom for me.
i Réaumur. 10° above zero, Fahrenheit.—Trans.
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