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RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD 45
lowed. I had not many children’s books, and I
already knew most of them by heart. The governess
never permitted me to read any book, even one
designed for children, without having previously
perused it herself; and, as she read very slowly, and
was always short for time, I found myself, so to
speak, in a chronic state of book-hunger; and here,
all of a sudden, what riches close at hand! Well,
how was it possible not to be beguiled ?
I struggle with myself for a few minutes. I
approach some little book, and at first I only glance at
it. I turn over a few leaves, read a few lines, then
run after my ball again as if nothing had happened.
But little by little the desire to read attracts me.
Perceiving that my first efforts have passed off
successfully, I forget the danger, and begin eagerly to
devour page after page. It makes no difference that
the volume of the novel which I have hit upon is not
the first. I read from the middle with quite as much
interest, and supply the beginning from my
imagination. From time to time, however, I exercise the
precaution of making my ball execute a few bounds,
in case the governess should return, and come to see
what I am doing, that she may hear that I am
playing as I have been commanded.
As a rule my trick proves successful. I hear the
governess’s steps in time, as she ascends the staircase,
and manage to throw the book aside before her
arrival, so that the governess remains convinced I have
been amusing myself all the time by playing ball like
a good, sweet-tempered child. Two or three times
during my childhood it happened that I was so carried
away by my reading that I observed nothing until
the governess rose up before me as if through the
floor, and caught me in the very act of transgressing.
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