FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84  
85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   >>   >|  
es,_ spying and tale-bearing and prayer-meetings,--it isn't my style. I'm young, I'm pretty, I'm full of red blood, life means something to me. I want to live it my own way. I want to laugh; I have opinions of my own; I want to read books that open and improve the mind. I want to promote my education by attending lectures, by going to the theatre--in short, I don't want to become a dunce and a bell-jingling fool like the others. If that spells royal disgrace--be it so. Louise won't purchase two "_How art thou's?_" at the price their Majesties and Royal Highnesses ask. Of course, it would come easier with Frederick Augustus's help and support, but since he chooses to be bully-ragged and sat upon and, moreover, finds pleasure in licking the hand that strikes at his and his wife's dignity, I will go it alone. I defy them. * * * * * DRESDEN, _June 16, 1894_. I had another tiff with Frederick Augustus, but the cause is too insignificant to deserve record. I will rather tell about our grand quarrel following Prince George's visit. We dined alone that day, as he was eager to hear the news. The preliminaries didn't excite him much, but when I mentioned the book episode, he bristled up. "You won't allow the King, or Prince George, to dictate what I shall read or not read?" I demanded. "My house is my castle and I won't brook interference in my _menage_." "Do you really suppose," replied Frederick Augustus, "that I'll court royal displeasure for the sake of those Jew-scribblers? I never read a book since I left school and can't make out what interest books can have to you or anyone else. Where did you get them, anyhow?" I told him that Leopold supplied my book wants. "My brother is a very intelligent man," I said, "and the books he gives me are all classics in their way." "Go to with your book-talk!" he mocked in his most contemptuous voice. "I asked the director of the royal library and was told that each of the books, to which father objects, was written by a Jew. Let Jews read them. It isn't decent for a royal princess to do so." "My brother isn't a Jew." "But in utter disgrace in Vienna. No one at court speaks to him. He is head over heels in debt and the next we know he will be borrowing from us. As to those books, don't bring any more into the house. Royal princes and princesses have better things to do than waste time on Jew-scribblers." With that he viole
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84  
85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Augustus
 

Frederick

 

disgrace

 

Prince

 

George

 
scribblers
 
brother
 

displeasure

 
interest
 

replied


school

 

princesses

 
demanded
 

dictate

 
suppose
 

menage

 
castle
 
interference
 

things

 

princes


borrowing

 

speaks

 

library

 

director

 

contemptuous

 

father

 

decent

 

Vienna

 

objects

 

written


mocked

 
intelligent
 

princess

 

Leopold

 

supplied

 
classics
 

quarrel

 
spells
 

Louise

 
purchase

jingling
 

easier

 
Highnesses
 
Majesties
 

theatre

 

pretty

 
meetings
 

spying

 
bearing
 

prayer