"
"Bah! am I in want of money?" replied Claes, in the tone of a man to
whom forty thousand francs was a matter of no consequence.
There was a moment's silence, during which the children made many
exclamations.
"See this one, mamma!"
"Oh! here's a beauty!"
"Tell me the name of that one!"
"What a gulf for human reason to sound!" cried Balthazar, raising his
hands and clasping them with a gesture of despair. "A compound of
hydrogen and oxygen gives off, according to their relative
proportions, under the same conditions and by the same principle,
these manifold colors, each of which constitutes a distinct result."
His wife heard the words of his proposition, but it was uttered so
rapidly that she did not seize its exact meaning; and Balthazar, as if
remembering that she had studied his favorite science, made her a
mysterious sign, saying,--
"You do not yet understand me, but you will."
Then he apparently fell back into the absorbed meditation now habitual
to him.
"No, I am sure you do not understand him," said Pierquin, taking his
coffee from Marguerite's hand. "The Ethiopian can't change his skin,
nor the leopard his spots," he whispered to Madame Claes. "Have the
goodness to remonstrate with him later; the devil himself couldn't
draw him out of his cogitation now; he is in it for to-day, at any
rate."
So saying, he bade good-bye to Claes, who pretended not to hear him,
kissed little Jean in his mother's arms, and retired with a low bow.
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