German Discipline

From Blushes 37 ‘Are you fit, Miss Brayfield? I wonder. Our German girls keep their bodies fit but I have the idea English girls are more slothful. Am I correct perhaps?’ Dr Leibnitz spoke good English though with an obvious accent. He was Head of the Social History Department, a large man of perhaps fifty. He did not look particularly fit himself — his considerable waistline was usually concealed in a double-breasted jacket — but Penny was not likely to make this point. He was her tutor and at a German university a tutor was a very important person; perhaps even more so for a foreign student on a short exchange. If her tutor wasn’t happy with her conduct she could simply be sent home, and without any questions. German universities it seemed were much more authoritarian than English ones. ‘Uh… I’m reasonably fit,’ was Penny’s answer. The question had come out of the blue but it was perhaps sensible to be cautious. In the one wee...