Thursday, 27th.  
My schoolmistress has kept her promise which she made, and came to-day just as I was on the point of going out with my mother to carry some linen¹ to a poor woman recommended by the Gazette. It was a year since I had seen her in our house. We all made a great deal of her. She is just the same as ever, a little thing, with a green veil wound about her bonnet², carelessly dressed, and with untidy hair, because she has not time to keep herself nice; but with a little less[13] color than last year, with some white hairs, and a constant cough. My mother said to her:—
 
“And your health, my dear mistress? You do not take sufficient care of yourself!”
 
“It does not matter,” the other replied, with her smile, at once cheerful and melancholy³.
 
“You speak too loud,” my mother added; “you exert yourself too much with your boys.”
 
That is true; her voice is always to be heard; I remember how it was when I went to school to her; she talked and talked all the time, so that the boys might not divert their attention, and she did not remain seated a moment. I felt quite sure that she would come, because she never forgets her pupils; she remembers their names for years; on the days of the monthly examination, she runs to ask the director what marks they have won; she waits for them at the entrance, and makes them show her their compositions, in order that she may see what progress they have made; and many still come from the gymnasium to see her, who already wear long trousers and a watch. To-day she had come back in a great state of excitement, from the picture-gallery, whither she had taken her boys, just as she had conducted them all to a museum every Thursd............