Shirley was astonished to see so many of them busily engaged smoking cigarettes and imbibing glasses of a pale-green beverage, which Jefferson told her was absinthe.
"When do they read ?" she asked.

"When do they attend lectures ?" "Oh," laughed Jefferson, "only the old-fashioned students take their studies seriously.

Most of the men you see there are from the provinces, seeing Paris for the first time, and having their fling.

Incidentally they are studying life.

When they have sown their wild oats and learned all about life--provided they are still alive and have any money left--they will begin to study books.