"Schützenberger allowed us all great liberty; his direction made itself felt chiefly through his inspiring love of science. The professors of the School of Physics and Chemistry, and the students who have gone from it, have created a kindly and stimulating atmosphere that has been extremely helpful to me. It is among the old students of the school that we have found our collaborators and our friends. I am happy to be able, here, to thank them all." The newly appointed director of the laboratory was, when he first assumed his duties, scarcely older than his students, who loved him because of his extreme simplicity of manner, which was much more that of a comrade than of a master. Some of these students recall with emotion their work carried on with him and his discussion at the blackboard, where he readily allowed himself to be led to debate scientific matters to their great profit both in information and in kindled enthusiasm. At a dinner given in 1903 by the Association of Former Students of the School, which he attended, he laughingly recalled an incident of this period. One day after lingering late with several students in the laboratory, he found the door locked, and they all had to climb down from the first floor single file, along a pipe that ran near one of the windows. Because of his reserve and shyness he did not make acquaintances easily, but those whose work brought them near him loved him because of his kindliness. This was true of his subordinates during his entire life. In the school his laboratory helper, whom he had aided under trying circumstances, thought of him with the greatest gratitude, in fact, with veritable adoration. Although separated from his brother, he remained bound to him by their former bond of love and confidence. During vacations, Jacques Curie would come to him that they might renew again that valuable collaboration to which both willingly sacrificed their periods of liberty. At times it was Pierre who joined Jacques, who was engaged in making a geological chart of the Auvergne country, and there they covered together the daily distances necessary to the tracing of such a map. Here are a few memories of these long walks, extracts from a letter written to me shortly before our marriage: "I have been very happy to pass a little time with my brother. We have been far from all immediate care, and so isolated by our manner of living that we have not even been able to receive a letter, never knowing one night where we would sleep the next. At times it seemed to me that we had gone back to the days when we lived entirely together. Then we always arrived at the same opinions about all things, with the result that it was no longer necessary for us to speak in order to understand each other. This was all the more astonishing because we differed so entirely in character."