"And what may you be studying, Madame?" I asked.
"Pretty nearly everything possible," she replied, laughing. "I take at least five hours of lessons daily. One of my professors only just left the house: he is giving me a course of University lessons on the ancient literature of India. Since a week, too, I have been learning to read hieroglyphics. … Haven't you made a study of them? … They are very interesting. … One is carried away—other lands, other times. … And I am so curious about everything in the world. … But I am best in languages. It is so extremely important to be able to read every writer in the original."
"For you must know," put in Mme. Wildenhoff, "that Mme. Mary is a well-known linguist."
"Indeed?"
"Ah," she said, smiling modestly, "it all comes to me so easily. At the present time, I am proficient in French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Dutch, and Russian. This year I am learning the Finnish and Japanese languages. I have, moreover, read Homer and Virgil in the original Greek
