use she has less to occupy
her than a man has. You have no idea how busy I have been during this
long year in which you have forgotten me.

Among other things I have been busy growing. I am taller by two inches
than when last I saw you. Please be impressed by my five feet eight
inches.

Also, I am happy. The greatest happiness in the world is to have the
opportunity to learn about that same world.

I am happy because I now have that opportunity. During these many
months since I wrote to you I have learned a little French; I read
some, write some, understand pretty well, and speak a little. What a
pleasure, _mon ami_!

Piano and vocal music, too, occupy me; I love both, and I am told
encouraging things. But best and most delightful of all I am learning
to draw and compose and paint from life in the Academie Julian! Think
of it! It is difficult, it is absorbing, it requires energy,
persistence, self-denial; but it is fascinating, satisfying,
glorious.

Also, it is very trying, _mon ami_; and I descend into depths of
despair and I presently soar up out of those depressing depths into
intoxicating altitudes of aspiration and self-confidence.

You yourself know how it is, of course. At the criticism today I was
lifted to the seventh heaven. "_Pas mal_," he said; "_continuez,
mademoiselle_." Which is wonderful for him. Also my weekly sketch was
chosen from among all the others, and I was given number one. That
means my choice of _tabourets_ on Monday morning, _voyez vous_? So do
you wonder that I came home with Suzanne, walking on air, and that as
soon as _dejeuner_ was finished I flew in here to write to you about
it?

Suzanne is our maid--the maid of Princess Naia, of course--who walks
to and from school with me. I didn't wish her to follow me about at
first, but the Princess insisted, and I'm resigned to it now.

The Princess Mistchenka is such a darling! I owe her more than I owe
anybody except mother and father. She simply took me as I was, a
young, stupid, ignorant, awkward country girl with no experience, no
_savoir-faire_, no clothes, and even no knowledge of how to wear
them; and she is trying to make out of me a fairly intelligent and
presentable human being who will not offend her by _gaucheries_ when
with her, and who will not disgrace her when in the circle of her
friends.

Oh, of course I still make a _faux pas_ now and then, _mon ami_; there
are dreadful pitfalls in the French language into which I