460 THE LIFE OF PASTEUR 



and arrested in a long pause of several seconds, during which 

 all seemed suspended. 



At the end of December, a marked improvement took place. 

 On January 1, after seeing all his collaborators, down to the 

 youngest laboratory attendant, Pasteur received the visit of 

 one of his colleagues of the Academic Francaise. It was Alex- 

 andre Dumas, carrying a bunch of roses, and accompanied by 

 one of his daughters. " I want to begin the year well," he 

 said: " I am bringing you my good wishes." Pasteur and 

 Alexandre Dumas, meeting at the Academy every Thursday 

 for twelve years, felt much attraction towards each other. 

 Pasteur, charmed from the first by this dazzling and witty in- 

 tellect, had been surprised and touched by the delicate attentions 

 of a heart which only opened to a chosen few. Dumas, who 

 had observed many men, loved and admired Pasteur, a modest 

 and kindly genius ; for this dramatic author hid a man thirsting 

 for moral action, his realism was lined with mysticism, and he 

 placed the desire to be useful above the hunger for fame. His 

 blue eyes, usually keen and cold, easily detecting secret 

 thoughts and looking on them with irony, were full of an ex- 

 pression of affectionate veneration when they rested on ' ' our 

 dear and great Pasteur," as he called him. Alexandre Dumas' 

 visit gave Pasteur very great pleasure ; he compared it to a ray 

 of sunshine. 



As he could not go out, those who did not come to see him 

 thought him worse than he really was. It was therefore with 

 great surprise that people heard that he would be pleased to 

 receive the old Normaliens, who were about to celebrate the 

 centenary of their school , and who , after putting up a memorial 

 plate on the small laboratory of the Rue d'Ulm, desired to visit 

 the Pasteur Institute. They filed one after another into the 

 drawing-room on the first floor. Pasteur, seated by the fire, 

 seemed to revive the old times when he used to welcome young 

 men into his home circle on Sunday evenings. He had an 

 affectionate word or a smile for each of those who now passed 

 before him, bowing low. Every one was struck with the keen 

 expression of his eyes ; never had the strength of his intellect 

 seemed more independent of the weakness of his body. Many 

 believed in a speedy recovery and rejoiced. " Your health," 

 said some one, " is not only national but universal property." 



On that day, Dr. Roux had arranged on tables, in the large 



