CHAPTER 16Monsieur Rodin kept a school for children of both sexes; duringhis wife's lifetime he had obtained the required charter and theyhad not seen fit to deprive him of it after he had lost her.Monsieur Rodin's pupils were few but select: in all, there were butfourteen girls and fourteen boys: he never accepted them undertwelve and they were always sent away upon reaching the age ofsixteen; never had monarch prettier subjects than Rodin. If therewere brought to him one who had some physical defect or a face thatleft something to be desired, he knew how to invent twenty excusesfor rejecting him, all his arguments were very ingenious, they werealways colored by sophistries to which no one seemed able to reply;thus, either his corps of little day students had incomplete ranks,or the child
