CHAPTER XV.
SOME time elapsed before I again gave a lesson in the first
class; the holiday of Whitsuntide occupied three days, and on the
fourth it was the turn of the second division to receive my
instructions. As I made the transit of the CARRE, I observed, as
usual, the band of sewers surrounding Mdlle. Henri; there were
only about a dozen of them, but they made as much noise as might
have sufficed for fifty; they seemed very little under her
control; three or four at once assailed her with importunate
requirements; she looked harassed, she demanded silence, but in
vain. She saw me, and I read in her eye pain that a stranger
should witness the insubordination of her pupils; she seemed to
entreat order--her prayers were useless; then I remarked that she
compressed her lips and contracted her brow; and her countenance,
if I read it correctly, said--"I have done my best; I seem to
merit blame notwithstanding; blame me then who will." I passed
on; as I closed the school-room door, I heard her say, suddenly
and sharply, addressing one of the eldest and most turbulent of
the lot--
|