Men used to wait outside the door in order to get a seat, just as people stand patiently for hours at the pit-door of a theatre.

Among this audience there was one young sergeant who had shown a singularly keen interest in the lectures; he was one of the smartest and cleanest-living men in the station, and had never been charged with drunkenness in his life.

At one of the lectures B.-P.

was surprised to find the young soldier absent, and he was still more surprised on the following day to find that this irreproachable sergeant was up on a charge of drunkenness.

"What on earth made you go and get drunk ?" asked B.-P.