K. then
took her leave, and I remained sole occupant of her two rooms, which
she only uses as school-rooms, for she sleeps at her brother's
house.

My lodging at Miss K.'s was, however, the most uncomfortable of any
I had yet occupied during my entire journey.

From eight o'clock in the morning until seven at night four or five
girls, who did any thing rather than study, were continually in the
room. The whole day long there was such a noise of shouting,
screaming, and jumping about, that I could not hear the sound of my
own voice. Moreover, the higher regions of this hall of audience
contained eight pigeons' nests; and the old birds, which were so
tame that they not only took the food from our plates, but stole it
out of our very mouths, fluttered continually about the room, so
that we were obliged to look very attentively at every chair on
which we intended to sit down. On the floor a cock was continually
fighting with his three wives; and a motherly hen, with a brood of
eleven hopeful ducks, cackled merrily between. I wonder that I did
not contract a squint, for I was obliged continually to look upwards
and downwards lest I should cause mischief, and lest mischief should
befall me. During the night the heat and the stench were almost
insupportable; and immediately after midnight the cock always began
to crow, as if he earned his living by the noise he made. I used to
open the window every night to make a passage of escape for the heat
and the foul air, while I lay down before the door, like Napoleon's
Mameluke, to guard the treasures entrusted to my care. But on the
second night two wandering cats had already discovered my
whereabouts--without the least compunction they stepped quietly over
me into the chamber, and began to raise a murderous chase. I
instantly jumped up and drove away the robbers; and from that time
forward I was obliged to remain in the interior of my fortress,
carefully to barricade all the windows, and bear my torments with
what fortitude I might.

Our diet was also of a very light description. A sister-in-law of
the good Pauline was accustomed to send in our dinner, which
consisted one day of a thimbleful of saffron-coloured pilau, while
the next would perhaps bring half the shoulder of a small fish. Had
I boarded with my hostess, I should have kept fast-day five days in
the week, and have had nothing to eat on the remaining two. I
therefore at once left off dining with them, and