30 A CHEMICAL TRIAD. 



The footman bowed and retired. 



' Stay,' interrupted his master ; ( how long has Mr. 



been waiting?' 



' For more than an hour, sir.' 



* O, very well, very well. Send him up.' 



' I am come, sir,' remarked the banker, ' to ascertain your 

 wishes concerning a sum of eighty thousand pounds now 

 placed to your account.' 



' Does it inconvenience you?' demanded Cavendish. 'If 

 so, I can transfer it elsewhere.' 



Inconvenience, sir? by no means,' replied the banker; 

 * but pardon me for suggesting that it is too large a sum to 

 remain unproductive; would you not like to invest it?' 



' Invest it, eh ? yes, invest, if you like ; do as you please 

 with it ; but don't interrupt me about such things again. I 

 have other matters to think about.' 



Though not a philanthropist in any sense of the term, 

 few persons have contributed more liberally towards the ac- 

 complishment of philanthropic objects than Cavendish. Sub- 

 scription-lists if not the bearers of them found ready access, 

 and Cavendish dealt with them in a way peculiarly his own. 

 Glancing over the list of subscribers, he would notice the 

 largest amount subscribed, then contribute a like sum. This 

 peculiarity became so well known, that it was frequently abused, 

 a fictitious subscription being announced for the purpose of 

 misleading our philosopher. Although in early life Cavendish 

 must have exercised no little amount of frugality in making 

 his slender income suffice, yet a certain ignorance of the value 

 of money characterised him throughout life : in proof of this, 

 the following anecdotes may be cited. At a time when the 

 funds of the Royal Institution were far less ample than at pre- 

 sent, Sir Humphry Davy, then attached to that society, had 

 opened a subscription-list in order to purchase an expensive 

 voltaic battery, an instrument necessary for the prosecution of 

 some discoveries which have since immortalised his name, and 



