"No."
"What a pity! I cannot therefore hope to rouse in you the divine enthusiasm of a scientist. I had just come back from Stratford-at-Bow when I had the pleasure and honour of meeting you to-day. I had been down there looking after the first drawing of the retorts, and my expectations had never dared to contemplate such a result as I have reached."
"May I know what your discovery is?"
"The philosopher's stone, sir. Ha-ha ha! You will laugh at me. So will all sensible men laugh at me when I say I have discovered the philosopher's stone. The universal agent. The great solvent. The mighty elixir. But remember, sir, in the history of the world's progress it is always the sensible men who have been the fools."
"I am afraid you will not have many believers in the beginning."
"I know I shall not. But I do not want many believers. I am not like the advertising stockbrokers who are willing to make any man's fortune but their own. I shall keep my secret dark, and make my fortune in quiet, with no more noise about how I am doing it than an army contractor."
"And what do you purpose making gold out of--lead?"
"No, sir, phosphorus. Out of phosphorus."
"It is the right colour, to begin with."
"And it is in the right place."