“We will put all that in order for you.”
He walked round the laboratory, looking attentively at the objects on the table, and the alembics, with their copper spirals, on the stove.
“So it is here that you are working! Who arranges things in this laboratory?”
“No one enters the place but myself.”
“So I see. However, I will clean your utensils; I know how to go about it. Are you working at the General’s formulæ?”
“Not yet; I have had other things to attend to. Still, I intend to commence shortly. I am very glad you have come, for you will be at hand, in case I want any help. See here, Baudoin, these are blue, pink, and green dyes which I have fixed lately. They are capable of giving wool an unchangeable colour.”
As he spoke, he handled hanks of a strong and harmonious shade, stretching them out before the light of day, and showing all their reflections.
“Our poor General put this idea into my head. Ah! if he had only contented himself with undertaking industrial researches, we should still have had him alive and well among us, and in possession of a large fortune. But he disdained such productive discoveries; he thought only of the State. He would work for nothing else.”
“After serving it so long, M. Marcel, it was second nature with him.”
“Well, well, Baudoin! Settle down here, and commence your duties this very night.”