"'Marquis, would you mind enlightening me on a point about which, it seems, you maintain a shrinking reserve? How did you get that wound on your left hand, get your fourth finger cut off at the very root? The story goes that you left that finger at the bottom of one of your retorts, for you have the reputation, Marquis, of being something of an alchemist, and of seeking, inside the walls of your Château of Roche-Périac, the elixir of life.'
"'I do not seek it, Monsieur de Fontenelle,' I answered, 'I possess it.'
"'Truly?'
"'Truly, Monsieur de Fontenelle, and if you will permit me to put you in possession of a small phial, the pitiless Fate will certainly have to wait till your hundredth year.'
"'I accept with the greatest pleasure,' he said, laughing—'on condition that you keep me company. We are of the same age—which gives us another forty good years to live.'
"'For my part, Monsieur de Fontenelle, to live longer does not greatly appeal to me. What is the good of sticking stubbornly to a world in which no new spectacle can surprise and in which the day that is coming will be the same as the day that is done. What I wish to do is to come to life again, to come to life again in a century or two, to make the acquaintance of my grandchildren's children, and see what men have done since our time. There will be great changes here below, in the government of empires as well as in everyday life. I shall learn about them.'
"'Bravo, Marquis!' exclaimed Monsieur de Fontenelle, who seemed more and more amused. 'Bravo! It is another elixir which will give you this marvelous power.'
"'Another,' I asserted. 'I brought it back with me from India, where, as you know, I spent ten years of my youth, becoming the friend of the priests of that marvelous country, from which every revelation and every religion came to us. They initiated me into some of their chief mysteries.'
"'Why not into all?' asked Monsieur de Fontenelle, with a touch of irony.
"'There are some secrets which they refused to reveal to me, such as the power to communicate with those other worlds, about which you have just discoursed so admirably, Monsieur de Fontenelle, and the power to live again.'