ddle-aged
husband by a calm observance of duty and a mother's love for his
children. "My mother was a remarkable woman. She had dark eyes and
hair, and an enthusiastic and devoted expression in her face, which
made me feel sad, as a child, if I looked at her for long. She spoke
little, and then in a curious mixture of German and Russian. Strangely
enough, she always called herself a German, and spoke Russian like a
foreigner; but later, when we went to Berlin, she discovered that she
was really a Russia, and always wished she were back in Moscow, never
feeling at home amid her new surroundings. She was a Protestant like
her father, but had inherited from her Russian mother a lingering
affection for the orthodox faith, and she often used to go to the
Golden Church of the Kremlin, whose brown, holy images had a mystical
effect on her. She loved to sing gypsy songs in a low voice. She would
not teach them to us. She was always very quiet, and preferred being
alone with us to any society or entertainment."

When Wilhelm was four years old there came a little sister, a bright,
light-haired, blue-eyed creature after her father's heart. She was
named Luise, but she was always called Blondchen. She was his only
playfellow, as the irritable father in Moscow cared for no
acquaintances. His father's one wish was to return to his home, but for
a long time the mother would not have it so. At last, in the year 1858,
he accomplished his wish. He was then sixty-three years old, and he
represented to his wife that after his life of unremitting work, now in
its undoubted decline, he had a right to spend the last few years in
peace in his native land. He possessed enough for his family to live
on; the children would grow and get a better education than in Russia,
and above all he wished to keep his Prussian nationality. The mother
yielded, and so they came to Berlin, where the father bought a modest
house near the Friedrich-Wilhelm gymnasium. This house was now
Wilhelm's property. "We children liked Berlin very much. I soon became
independent and self-reliant, after school hours wandering in the
streets as much as I pleased, and used to make eager explorations in
all directions, coming home enraptured when I had found a beautiful
neighborhood, a stately house, a statue of some general in bronze or
marble. I used to take Blondchen by the hand, and show her my
discovery. The Friedrichstadt with its straight streets interested us
very much;