"You little _duck_! _your_ name is _Brown_, _I_ know!" And he came away, his face pale with conflicting emotions, and told us! How excited we were! Bonneville (who spoke English quite well) went for a pen'orth on his own account, and said: "My name's Brown too, Miss Katidjah!" But he didn't get a kiss. (She soon after married a Mr. ----, of ----, the well-known ---- Of ----shire, in ----land. She may be alive now.) Then to the Palais Royal, to dine at the "Dîner Européen" with M. Berquin père, a famous engineer; and finally to stalls at the "Français" to see the two first acts of _Le Cid_; and this was rather an anticlimax--for we had too much "Cid" at the Institution F. Brossard already! And then, at last, to the omnibus station in the Rue de Rivoli, whence the "Accélérées" (en correspondence avec les Constantines) started for Passy every ten minutes; and thus, up the gas-lighted Champs-Élysées, and by the Arc de Triomphe, to the Rond-point de l'Avenue de St.-Cloud; tired out, but happy--happy--happy _comme on ne l'est plus_! Before the school broke up for the holidays there were very severe examinations--but no "distribution de prix"; we were above that kind of thing at Brossard's, just as we were above wearing a uniform or taking in day boarders. Barty didn't come off very well in this competition; but he came off anyhow much better than I, who had failed to be "diligent and attentive"--too much _Monte Cristo_, I'm afraid. At all events Barty got five marks for English History, because he remembered a good deal about Richard Coeur de Lion, and John, and Friar Tuck, and Robin Hood, and especially one Cedric the Saxon, a historical personage of whom the examiner (a decorated gentleman from the Collège de France) had never even heard! * * * * * And then (to the tune of "Au clair de la lune"): "Vivent les vacances-- _Denique tandèm_; Et les pénitences-- _Habebunt finèm_! Les pions intraitables, _Vultu Barbarò_, S'en iront aux diables, _Gaudio nostrò_." N.B.--The accent is always on the last syllable in French Latin--and _pion_ means an usher. [Illustration: "TOO MUCH 'MONTE CRISTO,' I'M AFRAID"] Barty went to Yorkshire with the Rohans, and I spent most of my holidays with my mother and sister (and the beautiful Miss ----) at Mademoiselle Jalabert's, next door--coming back to school for most of my meals, and at night to sleep, with a whole dormitory to myself, and no dreadful bell at five in the morning; and so much time to spare that I never found any leisure for my holiday task, that skeleton at the feast; no more did Jules, the sergeant's son; no more did Caillard, who spent his vacation at Brossard's because his parents lived in Russia, and his "correspondant" in Paris was ill.