The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



city. Skilled as they are in chemical work, they 

 are equally capable of wielding the pen, the pen- 

 cil, the scalpel, and the lens. As you here seem 

 unaware of it, I am delighted to inform you." 



This time I should have liked the ground to 

 open and swallow me up. Fortunately the bell 

 rang for the train to start. I said good-bye to the 

 minister and, hurriedly taking to flight, left him 

 laughing at the trick which he had played me. 



The incident was noised about, could not help 

 being so, for the peristyle of a railway station keeps 

 no secrets. I then learnt to what annoyances the 

 shadow of the great exposes us. I was looked upon 

 as an influential person, having the favour of the 

 gods at my entire disposal. Place-hunters and can- 

 vassers tormented me. One wanted a licence to 

 sell tobacco and stamps, another a scholarship for 

 his son, another an increase of his pension. 1 had 

 only to ask and I should obtain, said they. 



O simple people, what an illusion was yours! 

 You could not have hit upon a worse intermediary. 

 I figuring as a postulant! I have many faults, I 

 admit, but that is certainly not one of them. I 

 got rid of the importunate people as best I could, 

 though they were utterly unable to fathom my 

 reserve. What would they have said had they 

 known of the minister's offers with regard to my 

 laboratory and my jesting reply, in which I asked 

 for a crocodile-skin to hang from my ceiling! They 

 would have taken me for an idiot. 



Six months elapsed; and I received a letter sum- 

 moning me to call upon the minister at his office. I 

 176 



