I had a tri-coloured cockade pinned inside my bodice. I took it out and held it in the palm of my hand, under the half-raised cover of my desk. I showed it to my neighbour, and slipped it into her hand; she did the same to her neighbour. In an instant my cockade went the round of our long table, unperceived by our governess. My friends knew then that “Mesdemoiselles” had spoken to me about the Republic!
The class became highly excited; we were all restless and inattentive. Not one of us had learned her lessons or written her exercises, and there seemed to be but one answer:
“Mademoiselle, I have had no time for my lessons on account of the Republic.”
“Mademoiselle, I have had no time to study, on account of the Republic!”
“I wonder what interest the Republic can have for you?” said our governess, in a most disdainful tone, and shrugging her shoulders.
A voice was heard to answer, amid general silence. It was mine:
“Why, Mademoiselle, the Republic is most exciting to us!”
An approving murmur upheld me. Mademoiselle was silent, and looked amazed at me, and I saw it struck her that if I had dared to answer her as I had, it was because I thought I had the right to do so.
The exit of the class was something like a small riot.
It was our Republic, and we, the Frondeuses, owned it! The King in exile, republicans and democrats in power, it was simply a triumph! Surrounded and questioned, I did not know which of my friends to answer first.