"J'ai une si mauvaise plume--impossible d'ecrire!"

"Mais, monsieur--je ne sais pas suivre--vous allez si vite."

"Je n'ai rien compris, moi!"

Here a general murmur arose, and the teacher, opening her lips for the
first time, ejaculated--

"Silence, mesdemoiselles!"

No silence followed--on the contrary, the three ladies in front began to
talk more loudly.

"C'est si difficile, l'Anglais!"

"Je deteste la dictee."

"Quel ennui d'ecrire quelquechose que l'on ne comprend pas!"

Some of those behind laughed: a degree of confusion began to pervade the
class; it was necessary to take prompt measures.

"Donnez-moi votre cahier," said I to Eulalie in an abrupt tone; and
bending over, I took it before she had time to give it.

"Et vous, mademoiselle-donnez-moi le votre," continued I, more mildly,
addressing a little pale, plain looking girl who sat in the first row of
the other division, and whom I had remarked as being at once the ugliest
and the most attentive in the room; she rose up, walked over to me, and
delivered her book with a grave, modest curtsey. I glanced over the
two dictations; Eulalie's was slurred, blotted, and full of silly
mistakes--Sylvie's (such was the name of the ugly little girl) was
clearly written, it contained no error against sense, and but few
faults of orthography. I coolly read aloud both exercises, marking the
faults--then I looked at Eulalie:

"C'est honteux!" said I, and I deliberately tore her dictation in four
parts, and presented her with the fragments. I returned Sylvie her book
with a smile, saying--

"C'est bien--je suis content de vous."

Sylvie looked calmly pleased, Eulalie swelled like an incensed turkey,
but the mutiny was quelled: the conceited coquetry and futile flirtation
of the first bench were exchanged for a taciturn sullenness, much more
convenient to me, and the rest of my lesson passed without interruption.

A bell clanging out in the yard announced the moment for the cessation
of school labours. I heard our own bell at the same time, and that of a
certain public college immediately after. Order dissolved instantly; up
started every pupil, I hastened to seize my hat, bow to the maitresse,
and quit the room before the tide of externats should pour from the
inner class, where I knew near a hundred were prisoned, and whose rising
tumult I already heard.

I had scarcely crossed the hall and gained the corridor, when Mdlle.
Reuter came again upon me.

"S