But I fear that I have said too much about the incoherent impressions
and images which came to me so frequently in days gone by; this is the
last time that I will speak at length of them. But it will be seen,
because of what follows, how important it is for me to note the
association existing between the dissimilar things mentioned above.




CHAPTER XLIX.



We left the mountains at the beginning of October, but my home-coming
was marked by a very painful circumstance--I was sent to school! I went,
of course, only as a day scholar; and it goes without saying that I was
never allowed to go and come alone lest I should get into bad company.
The four years that I spent at the university, as a day scholar, were
as strange and as full of odd experiences as any of my life. But,
notwithstanding, from that fatal day my history becomes much less
interesting as a narrative.

I was taken to school for the first time, at two o'clock in the
afternoon, upon one of those glorious October days, so sunny and
peaceful, that is like a reluctant and sad leave-taking of the
summer-time. Ah! how beautiful it had been in the mountains, in the
leafless forests and among the autumn-tinted vines!

With a crowd of children, all talking at the same time, I entered the