I understand much more readily than I speak, so that I could understand what she was saying to me easily, especially as she took care to see that she used small words and made herself understood.
But it was very difficult for me just to speak. I could not possibly have reacted to her as I would to someone else in English, as I would if she had been speaking English.
Mr. Dulles. At this time you felt that she could not gain very much if you talked to her in English?
Mrs. Paine. I was certain of that, yes.
Mr. Dulles. But later she had improved, apparently?
Mrs. Paine. After the assassination, to my knowledge.
Mr. Dulles. That was after the assassination?
Mrs. Paine. Yes. I never knew her to speak English at all.
Mr. Dulles. Or to understand?
I wasn't speaking of just speaking, but about the comprehension of it.