"What's your name?" he began.
"Decle."
"What's your Christian name?"
"Lionel."
"Your profession?"
"I have none."
"Ah, yes," he replied, "a good-for-nothing, like all the Volontaires." He then asked me for my father's name, Christian name and profession. I had also to give him my mother's maiden name, and to tell him whether I had any brothers or sisters. After this followed some rather ludicrous questions:
"Can you read and write?"
"Well," I said, "I suppose so, considering that I am a Volontaire, and have therefore taken a University degree."