Early School Days 



form. Our first, I think, stayed about a week, and during that 

 period cried continuously. Our second was a massive Fraulein, 

 very fat, kindly, and cheerful, but hopelessly out of place where 

 three spoiled children required managing. 



One experience lives to this day in my memory. I was 

 going into the schoolroom, and had got near the door, 

 when I suddenly became aware of a sound of weeping and 

 wailing from within. This was exciting, for up to that moment 

 our new Fraulein had not given way to tears like the Niobe 

 first mentioned. I went in and found my mother trying to 

 pacify the poor lady, who, with a huge red wheal on her fat 

 arm, was in the act of pouring forth in broken English, in no 

 measured tones, the dreadful iniquities of my brother Maunsell, 

 who in her opinion was the most cruel boy that ever lived. 



It appeared that, having tried to coerce my brother against 

 his inclination, he had retaliated with a cutting whip, trying his 

 prentice hand on the poor lady's soft arm. Whether he was 

 punished for this escapade I have no recollection, I should say 

 not from my experience of later years, but our fat Fraulein soon 

 disappeared, taking with her, it is to be feared, but a poor 

 opinion of the Limber House discipline. 



Our third and last German governess was a lady the exact 

 opposite of my brother Maunsell's victim in every sense of the 

 word. A very pretty fair young girl, Fraulein Harpfner spoilt 

 us quite as much — possibly a little more — than our mother and 

 grandmother, and was therefore tolerated by us, and treated 

 with kindness, consideration, and much gratitude by our elders, 

 so much so that when our governess period was over, she 

 remained with us for some time as a friend of the family. I 

 cannot remember that she taught us anything, excepting to 

 speak German with the purest Hanoverian accent, and a 

 number of German games which she played with us to our 



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