“When we got here, the workmen were finishing off the additions to the conservatory and the laboratory.
“Lerne kept an eye on their work. He was always joking, and repeating, ‘Ah, we are going to work there, we are going to work there,’ in the same sort of a tone in which schoolboys shout out, ‘Hurrah for the holidays!’
“They fitted up the laboratory. Lots of boxes were put in it, and when all was finished, Lerne set off one morning to Grey in the dog-cart. The avenue was still straight at that time.
“I still see your uncle coming back with the five travelers and the dog which he had gone to get at the station—Donovan Macbeth, Johann, Wilhelm, Karl, Otto Klotz—you remember him—the tall dark fellow with the mustache?—and Nell. The Scot had joined the Germans at Nanthel. I think he must have known them before.
“The assistants put up at the laboratory, and Macbeth slept in a bedroom in the château—Dr. Klotz also.
“Klotz frightened me from the first, and yet he was a strong, handsome chap.
“I could not help asking Lerne where he had picked up that jail-bird! My question amused him very much.
“‘Oh, make your mind easy,’ he answered. ‘You are always imagining you see friends of M. Alcide. Professor Klotz has come from Germany. He is very learned. He is not an assistant, he is a collaborator, and will watch over the work of his three compatriots.’”
“Excuse me, Emma,” I said, interrupting her, “did my uncle speak German and English at that time?”