We drove out to Passy and I found the Ecole Feminine in the Boulevard Beausejour all and more than Mlle. Thompson had taken the time to portray in detail.  The entrance was at the side of the house and one approached it through a large gateway which led to a cul-de-sac lined with villas and filled with beautiful old trees that enchanted my eye.  I cursed those trees later but at the moment they almost decided me before I entered the house.

The interior, having been done by enthusiastic admirers of Mlle. Thompson, was not only fresh and modern but artistic and striking.  The salon was paneled, but the dining-room had been decorated by Poiret with great sprays and flowers splashed on the walls, 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