Page:The Dial (Volume 68).djvu/869

FRÄULEIN was our German governess. She entered our household shortly after Mama discovered that Bridget, our nurse, permitted us to eat buttered lumps of sugar. We addressed her, not by her given name, but as "Fräulein," for she was, as Mama put it, "a superior sort of servant," and dined, not in the kitchen as Bridget had done, but at table. We remained in her care two years. During that period, she lived with my sister and me more immediately than either our mother or father. She had her bed up in the third story where we slept, waked and washed us in the morning, conducted us to the school house after breakfast, fetched us at lunch time, and, in the afternoon, walked with us in Central Park.

Indeed, she very nearly lived as we. She was seldom separated from us, and went out alone very little. Sometimes, of a Sunday afternoon, she called on a married cousin who lived near First Avenue, and whose husband ran a "grocery business." That was her chief excursion. She had few friends. At times, she was assiduous in the kitchen. But, for the most, there was little-cordial intercourse between her and the other servants. Nor did she associate freely with the other governesses in the block, or with those we encountered so frequently in the Park. "They've not so much respect for a person," she repeated to us oftentimes. And consequently, those afternoons, when we strolled, or when we sat on sunny benches, we were alone, Fräulein and my sister and I.

It was at such moments that she took us into her confidence, and amazed us by revealing to us what surprising adventures had befallen her, in such generous measure, all her life. Her stories left upon my mind the impression of an indeed unforgettable personage. And for that reason I have sought to recount them faithfully.