CHAPTER XX 



INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY 



EpV^ERYTHING happens sooner or later. 

 -*^ When, through the low windows over- 

 looking the garden of the school, my eye 

 glanced at the laboratory, where the madder- 

 vats were steaming; when, In the sanctuary it- 

 self, I was present, by way of a first and last 

 chemistry-lesson, at the explosion of the retort 

 of sulphuric add that nearly disfigured every 

 one of us, I was far Indeed from suspecting the 

 part which I was destined to play under that 

 same vaulted roof. Had a prophet foretold 

 that I should one day succeed the master, 

 never would I have believed him. Time works 

 these surprises for us. 



Stones would have theirs too. If anything 

 were able to astonish them. The Saint-Mar- 

 tial building was originally a church; It is a 

 protestant place of worship now. Men used to 

 pray there In Latin; to-day they pray In 

 French. In the intervening period, It was for 

 some years In the service of science, the noble 

 orison that dispels the darkness. What has 

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