THE CLASS IN PHYSICS The classroom was a spacious rectangular hall with large grated windows that admitted an abundance of light and air.

Along the two sides extended three wide tiers of stone covered with wood, filled with students arranged in alphabetical order.

At the end opposite the entrance, under a print of St.Thomas Aquinas, rose the professor's chair on an elevated platform with a little stairway on each side.

With the exception of a beautiful blackboard in a narra frame, scarcely ever used, since there was still written on it the _viva_ that had appeared on the opening day, no furniture, either useful or useless, was to be seen.

The walls, painted white and covered with glazed tiles to prevent scratches, were entirely bare, having neither a drawing nor a picture, nor even an outline of any physical apparatus.