He had taught here for the last thirty years, and had become part and parcel of the neighborhood.
Jennings, quietly dressed in blue serge with brown boots and a bowler hat, turned down the lane and advanced towards the double door of the Academy, which was surmounted by an allegorical group of plaster figures designed by Le Beau himself, and representing Orpheus teaching trees and animals to dance.

The allusion was not complimentary to his pupils, for if Le Beau figured as Orpheus, what were the animals?
However, the hot-tempered little man refused to change his allegory and the group remained.

Jennings passed under it and into the building with a smile which the sight of those figures always evoked.

Within, the building on the ground floor was divided into two rooms--a large hall for the dancing lessons and a small apartment used indifferently as a reception-room and an office.

Above, on the first story, were the sitting-room, the dining-room and the kitchen; and on the third, under a high conical roof, the two bedrooms of the Professor and Peggy, with an extra one for any stranger who might remain.