Another month flew by, during which I made such progress in the language
that I could understand all that was said to me, and express myself with
tolerable fluency. My instructor professed to be astonished with the
progress I had made; I was careful to attribute it to the pains he had
taken with me and to his admirable method of explaining my difficulties,
so we became excellent friends.
My visitors became more and more frequent. Among them there were some,
both men and women, who delighted me entirely by their simplicity,
unconsciousness of self, kindly genial manners, and last, but not least,
by their exquisite beauty; there came others less well-bred, but still
comely and agreeable people, while some were snobs pure and simple.
At the end of the third month the jailor and my instructor came together
to visit me and told me that communications had been received from the
Government to the effect that if I had behaved well and seemed generally
reasonable, and if there could be no suspicion at all about my bodily
health and vigour, and if my hair was really light, and my eyes blue and
complexion fresh, I was to be sent up at once to the metropolis in order
that the King and Queen might see me and converse with me; but that when
I arrived there I should be set at liberty, and a suitable allowance
would be made me.
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