i don’t want to go to their balls and things i want to do good. i have long desired to run away, for i have been kept shut up for twenty years, and they are always trying to marry me off. i wanted to run away when i was fourteen years old i was a little fool then, i know but now i have worked it all out, and i have waited for you to tell me about foreign countries. i have never seen a single gothic cathedral. i must go to rome; i must see all the museums; i must study in paris. all this last year i have been preparing and reading forbidden books. alexandra and adelaida are allowed to read anything they like, but i mayn’t. i don’t want to quarrel with my sisters, but i told my parents long ago that i wish to change my social position. i have decided to take up teaching, and i count on you because you said you loved children. can we go in for education together if not at once, then afterwards? we could do good together. i won’t be a general’s daughter any more! tell me, are you a very learned man?"