After the first day there were no more empty benches. After that first lesson in English they were standing at the door waiting for me.

On one of the last days of the second week, Marius was seated on his bench, as usual, holding in his hand an open book, of which he had not turned a page for the last two hours.

He thought no more about the girl now that she was beautiful than he had when she was homely. He passed very near the bench where she sat, because such was his habit.

Then he turned abruptly in the direction opposite to the bench,to M. Leblanc and his daughter, and went home.

The safest place to be was on the pitch, not sitting by the sidelines, so when Jack said, 'Get your gear, you're going on, ' I was a bit relieved to get off the bench.