round. My researches were vain, for the boards were well
joined and strongly nailed. It is astonishing how disappointed I felt. I
thought it would have been so pleasant to have looked out upon a
garden planted with flowers and trees, so amusing to have watched the
demoiselles at their play; to have studied female character in a variety
of phases, myself the while sheltered from view by a modest muslin
curtain, whereas, owing doubtless to the absurd scruples of some old
duenna of a directress, I had now only the option of looking at a bare
gravelled court, with an enormous "pas de geant" in the middle, and the
monotonous walls and windows of a boys' school-house round. Not only
then, but many a time after, especially in moments of weariness and
low spirits, did I look with dissatisfied eyes on that most tantalizing
board, longing to tear it away and get a glimpse of the green region
which I imagined to lie beyond. I knew a tree grew close up to the
window, for though there were as yet no leaves to rustle, I often heard
at night the tapping of branches against the panes. In the daytime,
when I listened attentively, I could hear, even through the boards, the
voices of the demoiselles in their hours of recreation, and, to speak
the honest truth, my sentimental reflections were occasionally a trifle
disarranged by the not quite silvery, in fact the too often brazen
sounds, which, rising from the unseen paradise below, penetrated
clamorously into my solitude. Not to mince matters, it really seemed to
me a doubtful case whether the lungs of Mdlle. Reuter's girls or those
of M. Pelet's boys were the strongest, and when it came to shrieking
the girls indisputably beat the boys hollow. I forgot to say, by-the-by,
that Reuter was the name of the old lady who had had my window bearded
up. I say old, for such I, of course, concluded her to be, judging from
her cautious, chaperon-like proceedings; besides, nobody ever spoke of
her as young. I remember I was very much amused when I first heard her
Christian name; it was Zoraide--Mademoiselle Zoraide Reuter. But the
continental nations do allow themselves vagaries in the choice of names,
such as we sober English never run into. I think, indeed, we have too
limited a list to choose from.

Meantime my path was gradually growing smooth before me. I, in a
few weeks, conquered the teasing difficulties inseparable from the
commencement of almost every career. Ere long I had acquired as much