The Professor: Avignon 



The great obstacle stands revealed to me: woe 

 to the poor in pocket! University teaching de- 

 mands a private income. Be as ordinary, as com- 

 monplace as you please; but, above all, possess the 

 coin that lets you cut a dash. That is the main 

 thing; the rest is a secondary condition. 



And the worthy man tells me what poverty in 

 a frock-coat means. Though less of a pauper than 

 I, he has known the mortification of it; he de- 

 scribes it to me, excitedly, in all its bitterness. 

 I listen to him with an aching heart; I see the 

 refuge which was to shelter my future crumbling 

 before my eyes: 



" You have done me a great service, sir," I 

 answer. " You put an end to my hesitation. For 

 the moment, I give up my plan. I will first see 

 if it is possible to earn the small fortune which I 

 shall need if I am to teach in a decent manner.*' 



Thereupon we exchanged a friendship grip of 

 the hand and parted. I never saw him again. 

 His fatherly arguments had soon convinced me: I 

 was prepared to hear the blunt truth. A few 

 months earlier I had received my nomination as an 

 assistant-lecturer in zoology at the university of 

 Poitiers. They offered me a ludicrous salary. 

 After paying the costs of moving, I should have 

 had hardly three francs a day left; and, on this 

 income, I should have had to keep my family, 

 numbering seven in all. I hastened to decline 

 the very great honour. 



No, science ought not to practise these jests. If 

 we humble persons are of use to her, she should 

 189 



