18 PASTEUR 



which hides nature's secrets from us. He was 

 in such haste to learn, he felt such need of in- 

 cessant work, that on the days of freedom, 

 Thursdays and Sundays, he used to shut him- 

 self up in the libraries, and, whenever he con- 

 sented to take a walk with Chappuis, it was 

 only on the condition that they should discuss, 

 as they walked, some question of literature or 

 philosophy. 



The young student's resources were very 

 slender, in spite of the fact that the sympathy 

 he had aroused in M. Barbet and the services 

 he had rendered him had caused the latter to 

 end by remitting the whole of the usual charge ; 

 yet he had sufficient to pay for his pleasures. 

 At the urgent request of his father he con- 

 sented to go on certain Sundays to dine at the 

 Palais Royal, where the sum he spent was 

 scarcely ever more than forty sous! And the 

 crowning feature of this great treat was when 

 Louis Pasteur allowed himself the luxury of the 

 theatre, a thing which, by the way, occurred 



