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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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Part:         Session:         Page of 1143

Q:

This must be a disconcerting thing for women, because so often it's the case.

Lasker:

Yes, it is quite often, I think. It is very disconcerting. I don't know what can be done about it.

I spent the rest of the summer in Europe and my mother and sister joined me and we spent a lot of time in Paris. My father didn't come. My mother was rather ill in Paris; I was rather worried about that. But we went to Versailles and we went to museums and we were quite happy. We had no friends at all in Paris other than other Americans who were visiting, and it never occurred to me that one could have French friends. I was perfectly happy being in the city and interested in being in France without any idea that one could have friends who lived there, which I later got.

Q:

Were you fluent in the French language?

Lasker:

No, not very. I could get along.

Q:

What were your languages in college?

Lasker:

French, but I was a reader of French and never was expected to say anything. I just translated into English and I was very good at that. My speaking is still awful.





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