?e-vr5?7^^r?p^ 



slide under the stage clips and centered and fo- 

 cused the object rapidly and accurately. 



"Hm — not bad, not bad at all. Maybe a trifle 

 over-stained, but " 



And so the conversation started. He went 

 through my entire set of slides, making running 

 comments as some feature struck him, comments 

 always kindly critical. Then the talk turned from 

 the topic of practice to that of theory. Here, how- 

 ever, I was surprised to learn that my attainments 

 equaled his. I discussed on even terms the princi- 

 ples by which the formulas of lenses were com- 

 puted. I spoke not inferiorly of the physics of 

 diffraction, the reasons why different kinds of glass 

 were used in the construction of lenses, while he 

 listened with grave attention — and, I believe, 

 with deep interest. Obviously, this was informa- 

 tion of a sort which he had not expected to find in 

 one otherwise so inexpert; and I, in youthful vain- 

 glory took pride in displaying it. For more than an 

 hour we were thus occupied, with only an occa- 

 sional interruption by the entry of customers. 



Then it was that I came to the point. 



"I should like to buy this instrument." 



"How much is it worth to you?' 



[19] 



