George Du Maurier

The Martian George Du Maurier

As for the boys themselves, some were energetic and industrious-some listless and lazy and lolling, and quite languid with the heat-some fidgety and restless, on the lookout for excitement of any kind: a cab or carriage raising the dust on its way to the Bois-a water-cart laying it (there were no hydrants then); a courier bearing royal despatches, or a mounted orderly; the Passy omnibus, to or fro every ten or twelve minutes; the marchand de coco with his bell; a regiment of the line with its band; a chorus of peripatetic Orphéonistes-a swallow, a butterfly, a humblebee; a far-off balloon, oh, joy!-any sight or sound to relieve the tedium of those two mortal school-hours that dragged their weary lengths from half past one till half past three-every day but Sunday and Thursday.