When I returned to write out the proposed courses of action, Louis tried to focus on reading a book. He quickly found that he couldn’t understand anything. Melanie happened to wander in and volunteered to help. She had nothing better to do, so I permitted it. By the time I finished, Louis was managed to stumble through a few paragraphs and understand what it said. It was far from fluent, but he had learned a few basic words. Still, he only understood very simple sentences and even Anne of Green Gables was too hard for him to comprehend. “This does get easier, doesn’t it?” I nodded and Melanie tried to reassure him he was doing great. He still didn’t seem sure, but went back to focusing on the books all servants used to learn English and Latin. So far, he could read the Lord’s Prayer, (though it was mainly from memory,) and write out the alphabet from the hornbook, but not much more. He’d managed to scrawl out his name, but even that was hardly legible. …show more content…
You aren’t going to get it immediately. No one does. It doesn’t make me think less of you; no one ever taught you, simple as that.” This didn’t cheer him up any, but he did stop visibly fretting. “Latin isn’t any easier, but knowing English seemed to help me some. Maybe you should learn French, too?” “Catherine, I don’t think I want to learn French. English and Latin are going to be hard enough and then French? It may be my mother tongue, but it’s so different from English and Latin!” He seemed to be back to panicking like a schoolboy before a