During the seven years I spent at Brossard's I never once heard paternal wealth (or the want of it) or paternal rank or position alluded to by master, pupil, or servant--especially never a word or an allusion that could have given a moment's umbrage to the most sensitive little only son of a well-to-do West End cheese-monger that ever got smuggled into a private suburban boarding-school kept "for the sons of gentlemen only," and was so chaffed and bullied there that his father had to take him away, and send him to Eton instead, where the "sons of gentlemen" have better manners, it seems; or even to France, where "the sons of gentlemen" have the best manners of all--or used to have before a certain 2d of December--as distinctly I remember; nous avons changé tout cela! The head master was a famous republican, and after February, '48, was elected a "représentant du peuple" for the Dauphiné, and sat in the Chamber of Deputies--for a very 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 parenthèse_. 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 Félicité; and beneath this, le père et la mère 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 cafés 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.