Candide, I confess my troubles, Rachel advises
Mr. Bringhouse was out in the city somewhere on business, so I didn’t have to face him at midday dinner, but ate in peace, washed up my dishes, and followed Rachel into our lesson room. Hardly had we sat down and put our slates out, than she opened Candide and began to read, with me beside her to follow along, and then I read the same portion with her correcting me as needed. Sometimes, she read short passages in French, and I thought how jealous James Hemings would be if he knew that I should be privy to the language like this and not him, who troubled to learn it some while in France, when Master Jefferson was ambassador there. James was free by the law in that country, and bitter afterwards that he must return to bondage in America.
I was
