As it had already been settled that I was to enter the Diplomatic
Service, my father very wisely determined that I should leave
Harrow as soon as I was seventeen to go to France, in order to
learn French thoroughly. As he pointed out, it would take three
years at least to become proficient in French and German, and it
would be as well to begin at once.
The French tutor selected for me enjoyed a great reputation at
that time. Oddly enough, she was a woman, but it will be gathered
that she was quite an exceptional woman, when I say that she had
for years ruled four unruly British cubs, varying in age from
seventeen to twenty, with an absolute rod of iron. Mme. Ducros was
the wife of a French judge, she spoke English perfectly, and must
have been in her youth a wonderfully good-looking woman. She was
very tall, and still adhered to the dress and headdress of the
"sixties," wearing little bunches of curls over each ear--a
becoming fashion, even if rather reminiscent of a spaniel.
The Ducros lived at Nyons in the south of France. Nyons lay
twenty-five miles east of the main line from Paris to Marseilles,
and could only be reached by diligence.
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