Je Suis Le Meilleur Ami Des Betes

Random passage from Boris Akunin's The Winter Queen:

"The baroness knocked on one of the doors and they stepped into the classroom. Sitting at the desks were about fifteen boys aged eleven to twelve wearing blue uniforms with a golden letter 'A' on the jacket collar. All of them were watching with bated breath as a sullen young gentleman with immense side-whiskers, dressed in a rather untidy frock coat and a shirt that was none too fresh, spun some kind of glass wheel that was sputtering out bright blue sparks.

'Ich bin sehr beschaftigt, milady!' Dr Blank shouted angrily. 'Spater, spater!'