Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/401

 pointed to his right foot—“the other is bursting in the seams. Have you not a boot that you can lend me?” Indeed, I possessed two pairs, and it so happened that of one pair one boot was a little damaged and the other in a perfectly serviceable condition. This sound boot I gladly put at Strodtmann's disposal. When we undertook to make the exchange we noticed at once that the two good boots, his and mine, belonged to two different fashions. His was pointed at the toe and mine was broad-cut, and both were for the left foot. These unfortunate circumstances did not disturb Strodtmann in the least, and although he may have suffered at times considerable inconvenience, he walked about in these two left boots, one of which was pointed and the other broad, until his own footgear had had the necessary repairs.

I felt the necessity of perfecting myself in the French language in order to speak and write it with ease, and with that delicacy which constitutes one of its characteristic charms. One of my friends recommended to me a teacher who bore the high-sounding name of Mme. La Princesse de Beaufort. According to rumor, she belonged to an old noble family, but was impoverished to such a degree by the political revolutions, that she had to earn her bread as a teacher of language. Whether this was all true in reality I do not know, but when I sought her out I found her in a modest apartment of a hotel garni, an elderly lady of very agreeable features and a quiet, refined and somewhat courtly manner that permitted me to believe she had really moved in distinguished circles. She accepted me as a pupil and declared herself willing to give me two lessons a week, each of which should cost one franc. We began the next day. My teacher allowed me the choice of the method of instruction, and I proposed to her, instead of following the usual custom of memorizing rules of grammar, that I would write