picturesque
vegetables that had parted with their humility between the garden and
the palette. Through a glass partition one saw the shining kitchen
with its large modern range, its rows and rows of the most expensive
utensils--all donations by the omnifarious army of Mlle. Thompson's
devotees.

Behind the salon was the schoolroom, with its blackboard, its four
long tables, its charts for food proportions. All the girls wore blue
linen aprons that covered them from head to foot.

I followed Mlle. Thompson up the winding stair and was shown the
dormitories, the walls decorated as gaily as if for a bride, but
otherwise of a severe if comfortable simplicity. Every cot was as neat
as a new hospital's in the second year of the war, and there was an
immense lavatory on each floor.

Then I was shown the quarters destined for me if I would so far
condescend, etc. There was quite a large bedroom, with a window
looking out over a mass of green, and the high terraces of houses
beyond; the garden of a neighbor was just below. There was a very
large wardrobe, with shelves that pulled out, and one of those
wash-stands where a minute tank is filled every morning (when not
forgotten) and the bowl is tipped into a noisy tin just below.

The room was in a little hallway of its own which terminated in a
large bathroom with two enormous tubs. Of course the water was heated
in a copper boiler situated between the tubs, for although the Ecole
Feminine was modern it was not too modern. The point, however, was
that I should have my daily bath, and that the entire school would
delight in waiting on me.

It did not take me any time whatever to decide. I might not be
comfortable but I certainly should be interested. I moved in that day.
Mlle. Thompson's original invitation to be her guest (in return for
the small paragraph I had written about the dolls) was not to be
entertained for a moment. I wished to feel at liberty to stay as long
as I liked; and it was finally agreed that at the end of the week
Mlle. Thompson and Mlle. Jacquier should decide upon the price.

V

I remained something like three months. There were three trolley
lines, a train, a cab-stand, a good shopping street within a few
steps, the place itself was a haven of rest after my long days in
Paris meeting people by the dozen and taking notes of their work, and
the cooking was the most varied and the most delicate I have ever
eaten anywhere. A famous retired chef ha