"I can read writing, and that is very hard, you know.

I made Settimia teach me.

I said with myself, if he should be away and should write to me, what should I do?
I could not let Settimia read his letters, and I am too well dressed to go to a public letter-writer in the street, as the peasants do.

He would think me an ignorant person, and the people in the street would laugh.

That would not help me.