ry short time, alas!

So I fancy that the titled and particled boys--"les nobles"--were of
families that had drifted away from the lily and white flag of their
loyal ancestors--from Rome and the Pope and the past.

Anyhow, none of our young nobles, when at home, seemed to live in
the noble Faubourg across the river, and there were no clericals or
ultramontanes among us, high or low--we were all red, white, and
blue in equal and impartial combination. All this _par parenthese_.

On the asphalt terrace also, but separated from the head master's
classic habitation by a small square space, was the _lingerie_,
managed by Mlle. Marceline and her two subordinates, Constance and
Felicite; and beneath this, le pere et la mere Jaurion sold their
cheap goodies, and jealously guarded the gates that secluded us from
the wicked world outside--where women are, and merchants of tobacco,
and cafes where you can sip the opalescent absinthe, and libraries
where you can buy books more diverting than the _Adventures of
Telemachus_!

On the opposite, or western, side was the gymnastic ground, enclosed
in a wire fence, but free of access at all times--a place of
paramount importance in all French schools, public and private.

From the doors of the refectory the general playground sloped gently
down northwards to the Rond-point, where it was bounded by double gates
of wood and iron that were always shut; and on each hither side of these
rose an oblong dwelling of red brick, two stories high, and capable of
accommodating thirty boys, sleeping or waking, at work or rest or play;
for in bad weather we played indoors, or tried to, chess, draughts,
backgammon, and the like--even blind-man's-buff (_Colin Maillard_)--even
puss in the corner (_aux quatre coins!_).

All the class-rooms and school-rooms were on the ground-floor;
above, the dormitories and masters' rooms.

These two buildings were symmetrical; one held the boys over
fourteen, from the third class up to the first; the other (into the
"salle d'etudes" of which the reader has already been admitted), the
boys from the fourth down to the eighth, or lowest, form of
all--just the reverse of an English school.

On either side of the play-ground were narrow strips of garden
cultivated by boys whose tastes lay that way, and small arbors
overgrown with convolvulus and other creepers--snug little verdant
retreats, where one fed the mind on literature not sanctioned by the
authorities, and