"Well," ventured I, at the same time feeling in 

 my pocket for the money I was to offer as a deposit, 



"I have twenty dollars here " 



It is yours. 



And a few moments later, I was wending my 

 way homeward in delirious joy, carrying with me 

 the precious parcel. 



It was thus that I came into ownership of that 

 instrument which more than any other acquisition 

 determined my future course. For with its posses- 

 sion I was forthwith passionately engaged in the 

 pastime of peering into invisible worlds and pry- 

 ing into heretofore secret affairs of Nature — a pur- 

 suit which ever since has been at once the diversion 

 and the serious business of my life. True it is, the 

 range and the power of my instrument were, as 

 microscopes go, not of the greatest; but for my 

 amateurish enterprise it was a splendid founda- 

 tion. Without its use I could not have perfected 

 that exquisite technique which later enabled me 

 suddenly and of necessity to employ with precision 

 that last word in optical mechanics — the oil-im- 

 mersion lens. 



Since that eventful day, I never again saw my 

 pawnbroker benefactor — for benefactor he was in 



[20] 



