Dagobert paused.

“But I want to shout for the Queen.”

“The rest of us might not want to hear.”

The children all looked expectant and Dagobert said craftily: “But you`’ve just come to teach us English, not to tell us when we can’t shout for the Queen.”

The other two looked at Dagobert in admiration. I could imagine the state of affairs. He was Cock of the Nursery and as they looked up to him, I could imagine his spreading rebellion. He had too high an opinion of himself. That, I decided, must be deflated as soon as possible.

I said: “If I am going to teach you I must have some authority. It is not a very admirable or clever thing to do to run round a room calling out a catch phrase even though it does show a hospitable sentiment towards the Queen of England. As I wanted to talk to you about your lessons, I would prefer you not to continue, Dagobert. “

Dagobert was astonished. I knew at once that he was not correctly disciplined and that he needed a firm hand more than the others. I could certainly look for trouble from Dagobert.

“My father went to Saxe-Coburg to see the Queen,” Fritz told me shyly.

“That was a long time ago,” said Dagobert scornfully.

“Prince Albert is dead and the Queen is a widow. God save the Queen. God!

“Not again Dagobert,” I said.

But if I want to I will. “

“In your own company then,” I said.

“I am going to ask Fritz and Liesel to show me the schloss, and I shall tell them about our English lessons.”

Dagobert looked at me coldly defiant; his legs apart, his head flung back, his blue eyes flashing.

I turned away and said: “Come, Fritz, Liesel.

Dagobert said: “No. You’re not to.”

I felt my future authority depended on the next few seconds so I took Liesel’s hand. She tried to draw it away but I held it firmly. Her big blue eyes surveyed me with a kind of scared wonder. It was Fritz who decided.

“I’ll show you, Fraulein,” he said.

“Thank you, Fritz.”

His eyes were large and expressive. I knew that he had scarcely stopped looking at me since they had come into the room. I smiled at him and he smiled shyly back.

Dagobert started to run round the room shouting “God Save the Queen’ but I shut the door firmly on him and said:

“In English we don’t say Fraulein, Fritz. We say Miss. I’m Miss Trant, you see.”

“Miss,” said Fritz.

I nodded.

“Come on, Liesel. You say it too.”

“Miss,” said Liesel, and laughed.

“We shall have a short lesson every day,” I told them, ‘and when we are together we will speak in English. We will surprise your father with your progress. Now you will tell me about the schloss. It is castle in English. Can you say castle? “

They both said it to my satisfaction and their own intense delight. I contemplated that it would have been easy without Dagobert.

They showed me the rooms in the fortress-all with their embrasures in which were the long narrow windows. They took me up to the tower and Fritz told me that the tower was called the Katzenturm, the Cats’ Tower, because the falling missiles which they used to throw down on the invading forces sounded like the screeching of cats. We stood up there looking down on the town and across the mountains and Fritz pointed out the Duke’s castle high on the slope. Could I see the long buildings on the eastern side? They were the barracks and there the Duke’s Guards lived. It was fun to see them standing there.

“They guard it all the time,” said Fritz.

“Don’t they, Liesel?”

Liesel nodded.

“They have blue coats.”

“Dark blue coats, with gold on their sleeves and they have shining helmets. Sometimes they have feathers in them. They stand so still you think they’re not real.”

“I should like to see them.”

“We’ll show you, won’t we, Liesel?”

Liesel nodded.

I felt I was getting on very well. Liesel was ready to go with whoever was the leader, I could see that. Fritz was quite different from Dagobert. He was much smaller but then he was several years younger; his eyes were dark whereas Dagobert’s eyes were light blue; his hair was brown and straight, Dagobert’s waved about his head like a glistening gold cap. Dagobert was the handsome one but Fritz interested me. He had a sensitive face and I remembered Frau Graben’s saying that he missed a mother. I could well believe it. Dagobert would be self-sufficient; Fritz less so. I was sure, though, that Fritz was going to prove the better pupil.

I thought: He would be a year older than my own child. And I thought fleetingly how wonderful it would be if she had lived and all had gone as in those magic three days I had believed they would. Suppose this were my home-suppose instead of with these children I were here with my own . I shook myself free of fancies. I must be firmly realistic I must not allow the pine forests to put their spell on me.

“We’ll go to the town together,” I said, ‘and I’ll tell you what everything is in English. That will be a lovely and easy way to learn.

“

“Will Dagobert come?” asked Liesel.

“If he wants to.”

“Shall he be whipped if he won’t?” asked Fritz.

“Would you whip him?”

I could not see myself so engaged so I smiled faintly.

“I shall just ignore him. If he doesn’`t want to learn he will be ignorant and when the Count comes he will say: ” Well, what English have you learned?

”” And you and Liesel will speak to him in English and he will be pleased. Dagobert will know nothing. “

Liesel laughed.

“It’ll serve him right,” she commented.

They took me down into the Randhausburg. This was of much later period-sixteenth or seventeenth century, I believed. It consisted of several turreted buildings on the mountain plateau above which the fortress rose. The sleeping quarters of the rest of the household were’in one of these and in another was the Rittersaal the hall of the knights which would be used for ceremonial occasions. Beyond this was the stone-floored kitchen with its roasting spits and cauldrons.

It smelt of sauerkraut and onions. During our tour we met one or two of the servants who bobbed curtseys at me when Fritz told them who I was.

It was in the Rittersaal that Dagobert appeared; he stood quietly listening to what I had to say and he was trying to pretend, I could see, that he had been with us all the time.

“This was where the knights used to be,” Fritz told me.

Dagobert said: “Look at all the swords on the wall.”

That one’s the Count’s,” said Fritz.

“No, that one,” contradicted Liesel.

“That’s the biggest.”

“They’re all the Count’s, sillies,” declared Dagobert.

Liesel put out her tongue.

“We’re going to speak English and you’re not going to know any. Fraulein Trant said so.”

“No, that’s not right, Liesel,” I corrected.

“What I said was that if Dagobert didn’`t want to be with us when we learn he would know nothing and then your father would wonder why he couldn’'t speak English like you and Fritz.”

“I’ll speak English best of all,” said Dagobert.

I smiled inwardly. This was early victory.

“Can he?” asked Fritz almost anxiously; and I knew then that Fritz was hoping for an opportunity to excel the half-brother who beat him at almost everything he did.

“The one who works the hardest will be the best,” I said.

“It’s as simple as that.”

Victory indeed I I had instilled in my pupils a determination to apply themselves and succeed.

After we had examined the Randhausburg we went back to the fortress, and the children showed me the hunting room. The ceiling of this room was decorated with groups of animals and there were some stuffed heads on the walls among guns of various kinds.

“We practise shooting,” Dagobert told me.

“I’m a good shot. Bangi Bang! I shoot to kill.”

“You couldn’'t,” said Fritz.

“The cartridges are all blank.”

“Yes, I could,” insisted Dagobert.

“Bang.”

“We have archery lessons too,” Fritz told me.

“We practise in the courtyard,” added Dagobert.

“I hit the target every time.”

“You don’t,” Fritz disagreed.

“I would if I wanted to.”

“Well, I shall see,” I said.

“Now we’ll go to the schoolroom and I’ll see the Pastor.”

“The Pastor doesn’`t come today,” Dagobert said, scornful of my ignorance.

“Then I shall tell you what I hope to do about our daily lesson. Then I can arrange the time with the Pastor when he does come.”

We were mounting the staircase and came to a passage. I could turn right or left. One way led to my room, so I took the other and found myself at the foot of a spiral staircase. I started up this when Fritz called to me urgently: “Fraulein Trant.

I was about to say: “It’s Miss Trant in English,” when I turned and saw the fearful expression on his face. He was standing at the bottom of the staircase.

“What’s wrong, Fritz?” I asked.

“You mustn’`t go up there.”

The other children came up. Their faces bore the same excited yet frightened look.

“Why not?” I asked.

“The haunted room’s up there,” explained Fritz.

“Haunted? Who says so?”

“Everybody,” answered Dagobert.

“Nobody goes there.”

“The servants go to dust it,” contradicted Fritz.

“Never by themselves. If you go there by yourself something terrible will happen to you. You’d die and stay there for ever to haunt people.”