CHAPTER XX 



INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY 



T^ VERYTHING 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 acid 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 



447 



