The Princess of the Moor, by E. Marlitt

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1872 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: XXVI. The following afternoon I took the garden gate key, which had been confided to me, and went over to the Swiss cottage. I knew that Gretchen's father was teacher at the first girl's school in K., and I intended him to be my assistant in becoming another person. No long introduction was requisite. Frau Helldorf recognized me again immediately, -- and as I learned later Schafer, the gardener, had already related plenty of stories about the wild, singular, and so unexpected appearance of the "learned gentleman's" child; -- Gretchen threw her arms round my neck. The occurrence in the garden, which had been my fault, was not once mentioned. "Will you instruct me?" I asked Herr Helldorf, who sat correcting an enormous pile of copy books. "I will learn as much as it is possible to cram into my brains. I am already such a grown up girl, and don't even know how to write. He smiled, and so did his charming little wife, and we forthwith entered into a compact, according to which I was to be free to come and go as a child of the house, and to receive daily at least three hours of solid instruction. I informed Fraulein Fliedner of this compact; sheexpressed herself as thoroughly well-satisfied with it, and also undertook at my request to arrange about the payment for my lessons, so that I was not obliged to appear in Herr Claudius's office. From that time I was unwearied i my application. To be sure the pen was often enough thrown under the table at the commencement; and I fled with burning temples and streaming eyes deep into the wood, -- but I always returned nevertheless, though heaving many a sigh, and ...