“What! are you interested in science, Monsieur de Belleville?”
“I am interested in everything, doctor; I am always meditating, although I may not have that appearance.”
“Really! And this scientific discovery has a bearing upon hygiene?”
“What did you say?”
“I asked you if it related to hygiene, to therapeutics—in short, if it is a discovery of interest to the medical profession?”
“Oh! not at all, doctor; there’s not the least bit of medicine in my discovery. It is—you won’t mention it to anybody yet?”
“I will be dumb.”
“It’s a method of ascertaining, the moment you look at a tree, how old it is.”
“Oho! one can tell pretty nearly now, by observing the size of the trunk and the lines of the bark; but one can never be quite sure; it is only probable.”
“Well, thanks to me, doctor, there will be no more doubt, no more guessing; we can be absolutely sure of not making a mistake of a month, or even of a day!”