Quiet houses belonging to poor people stood on either side of this lane--for that it was--and at the end appeared the Academy, blocking the exit from that quarter.

It stood right in the middle of the street and turned the lane into a blind alley, but a narrow right-of-way passed along the side and round to the back where the street began again under a new name.

The position of the place was quaint, and often it had been intended to remove the obstruction, but the owner, an eccentric person of great wealth, had hitherto refused to allow it to be pulled down.

But the owner was now old, and it was expected his heirs would take away the building and allow the lane to run freely through to the other street.

Still it would last Professor Le Beau's time, for his heart would have broken had he been compelled to move.