"Five days ago."
"And was everything going on as usual?"
"Alas, not everything. Doctor Gunther has met with a sad affliction. Professor Korn, his son-in-law, died suddenly, having poisoned himself while dissecting a corpse."
"While dissecting a corpse?" exclaimed Irma. "We all die of the poison of decay, but not so suddenly; those on yonder island and we--all of us."
"You are very bitter."
"Not at all. My head is filled with the strangest fancies. I became acquainted with a great law over there.
"The law of renunciation?"
"Oh, no; the justification of fashion."
"You are mocking."
"By no means. Fashion is the charter of human liberty and the journal of fashion is humanity's greatest boon."