B1031 <=> B1033 [BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 1032]

“So, one morning, the parents – these elderly acquaintances of mine – came to see me at my apartment and asked me if I would agree to take their place with their youngest daughter during their absence, to visit her every week at the institute and to take her home with me for the holidays.

“I, of course, at once agreed to this proposal of theirs and when, very soon after, the senator and his wife left for Siberia I began punctually to fulfill the obligation taken upon myself in regard to their daughter who had by that time become a pet of mine.

“Upon my first visit to this educational establishment which existed specially for the education of children, I noticed a certain strange thing which also served as one of the causes of my subsequent observations and studies of the consequences on your contemporary favorites of that ‘maleficence’ invented by them themselves.

“On the day of my visit to this, as they call it, ‘genteel institution,’ there were many visitors in the reception room where the meetings of the parents or guardians with their children or wards actually took place.

“One or two parents or guardians had only just come in, others were already talking with their children or foster children, others were waiting the arrival of their children and all their attention was fixed on the door through which the pupils of that establishment usually entered. I also, after I had come into this reception room and had explained to the inspectress on duty who it was I wished to see, sat down to wait for my chance foster child. While waiting I looked around. All the pupils of this ‘genteel establishment’ were dressed alike and all wore their hair similarly braided in two braids, the ends of which, tied with ribbons, hung down their backs.