The Alkahest

esearches, remained in the parlor, and did not enter his laboratory. The succeeding day the household prepared to move into the country, where they stayed for

e disorder which his experiments and his indi

cook, and an old waiting-woman, named Martha, who had never left her mistress since the latter left her convent. It was of course impossible to give a fete to the whole society of Douai with so few servants, but Madame Claes

rder one of those monstrous fish which are the glory of the burgher tables in the northern departments. A fete like that the Claes were about to give is a serious affair, involving thought and care and active correspondence, in a land where traditions of hospitality put the fami

sixty miles, and the toilettes, the guests, the smallest details, the novelties exhibited, and the events that took place, were discussed far and wide. These preparations now prevented Claes from thinking, for the time being, of the Alkahest. Since his return to social life and domestic bliss, the servant of science had recovered his self-love as a man, as a Fleming, as the master of a

e news of the terrible disasters of the grand army in Russia, and at the passage of the Beresina, were made known on the afternoon of the appointed day. A s

several ideas on the subject of the Absolute, which had come to him since the period of their meeting. The letter plunged Claes into a reverie which apparently did honor to his patriotism; but his wife was not misled by it. To her, this festal day brought a doub

he middle and laid smoothly on the brow, gray eyes with a mixture of green, handsome arms, natural stoutness which did not detract from her beauty, a timid air, and yet, on the high square brow an expression of firmness, hidden at present under an apparent calmness and docility. Without being sad or melancholy, she seemed to have little natural enjoyment. Reflectiveness, order, a sense of duty, the three chief expressions of Flemish nature, were the ch

iends of the family. Little by little the brilliantly lighted house, to which all the notabilities of Douai had flocked, sank into silence, and by one o’clock in the morning the great gallery was deserted, the lights were extinguished in one salon after another, and the court-yard, lately so bustli

t he soon wearied of the play and of the talk, and seemed at last to get through with them as a duty. When his wife came down again after dressing, she always found him sitting in an easy-chair looking blankly at Marguerite and Felicie, quite undisturbed by the rattle of their bobbins. When the newsp

xpansion which need some stimulus to bring them forth; discussions of material life cannot long occupy superior minds accustomed to decide promptly; and the mere gossip of society is intolerable to loving natures. Consequently, two isolated beings who know each other thoroughly ought to seek their enjoyments in the higher regions of thought; for it is impossible to satisfy with paltry things the immensity

ame de Maintenon to Louis XIV.; she had to amuse the unamusable, but without the pomps of power or the wiles of a court which could play comedies like the sham embassies from the King of Siam and the Shah of Persia. After wasting the revenues of France, Louis XIV., no longer young or successful, was reduced to the expedients of a family heir to raise the money he needed; in the midst of his grandeur he felt his impotence, and the royal nurse who had rocked the cradles of his children was often at her wit’s end to rock hi

d the delicious wines and liqueurs which overflow the cellars of that ever-blessed land, ate the Flemish dainties and took their “cafe noir” or their “cafe au lait frappe,” while the women sang ballads, discussed each other’s toilettes, and related the gossip of the day. It was a living picture by Mieris or Terb

ise he had given not to renew his researches, he grew to have the melancholy motions, the feeble voice, the depression of a sick person. The ennui that possessed him showed at times in the very manner with which he picked up the tongs and built fantastic pyramids in the fire with bits of coal,

n or the chatter of his girls, with the air of a man absorbed in secret thoughts; but she shuddered when she saw him shake off his melancholy and try, with generous intent, to seem cheerful, that he might not distress others. The little coquetries of the father with his daughters, or his games with li

of speaking, his whole bearing, grew heavy and inert. These symptoms became more marked towards the end of April, terrifying Madame Claes, to whom the sight was

ed than ever, she hesitated no longer; she resolved

said, “I release yo

oked at her

our researches, are yo

ng, Madame Claes, who had had leisure to sound the abyss into which t

sold some of my diamonds, enough are left, with those my brother gave me, to get the necessary money for your experiments. I intended those je

his work which enabled him to walk without faltering on a path which, to his wife, was the edge of a precipice. For him faith, for her doubt — for her the heavier burden: does n

o recompense for your devotion, P

her eyes and remained for a moment speechless in presence of her children, whose future she had just sacrificed to a delusion;

her own mind; she lived in a state of continual expectation, and sat half-lifeless for days together in the deep armchair, paralyzed by the very violence of her wishes, which, finding no food, like those of Balthazar, in the daily hopes of the laboratory, tormented her spirit and aggravated her doubts and fears. Sometimes, blaming herself for compliance with a passion whose object was futile and condemned by the Church, she

ealous impatience, angry desires to destroy the building — a living death of untold miseries. Lemulquinier became to her a species of barometer: if she heard him whistle as he laid the breakfast-table or the dinner-table, she guessed that Balthazar’s experiments were satisfactory, and there were p

ch formerly chilled her heart, not observing the gloom that pervaded the house, where whole days went by in that melancholy parlor without a smile, often without a word. Led by sad maternal foresight, she trained her daughters to household work, and tried to make them skilful in womanly employ

when he ended the whole series of experiments, and the sense of his impotence crushed him; the certainty of having fruitlessly wasted enormous sums of money drove him to despair. It was a frightful catastrophe. He left the garret, descended slowly to the parlor, and thre

fferings. The victim consoled the executioner. When Balthazar said to her in a tone of dreadful conviction: “I am a wretch; I have gambled away the lives of my children, and your life; you can have no happiness unless I kill myself,"— the words struck home to her heart; she

s good to me as a father. The Abbe de Solis, my confessor, has shown me how we can still save ourselves from ruin. He came to see the pictures. The value of those in the gal

ign and bowed his head, the

es: he thinks they will pay the full value of ours. By this means we can recover our independence, and out of the purchase money, which will amount to over one hundred thousand ducats, you will have eno

as the protector of the husband. He, so tender, he, whose heart was so at one with his Pepita’s, now held her in his arms wi

hair’s breadth intervenes. To gasify metals, I only need to find the means of submitting them to

The poor woman left her husband abruptly and returned to the parlor, where she fell into a chair between her frightened daughters, and burst into tears.

ren, I am dyin

or the first time on her mother’s face, the signs of tha

ed Felicie, “come qui

soon as she saw the livid hue of the dusky skin

rist! madam

told Josette to heat water for a f

g Marguerite and Felicie to her heart with a despairing action; “I wish I could live long enough to see you married a

adful announcement — “Madame is dying; monsieur must have killed her; get ready a mustard-bath,"— forced certain exclamations from Josette, which she launched at Lemulqu

take down a copper kettle that shone like gold. “There’s no mother could stand quietly

at Lemulquinier, which the greenish tinge of her prominent little eyes made almost venomous. The old valet shrugged his shoulders

ney,” he said; “and then we should soon be rich enough to swim i

y; why don’t you give ’em to monsieur? he’s you

Mind your pots and pans, and heat the water,”

t this house which you and your master have melted up; and if you are allowed to ha

he’s got. He’s possessed by the devil; anybody can see that. You don’t risk your soul in helping him, Mulquinier, because you haven’t got any; look at you

d me to put the laboratory in order,” said the

s to give madame her foot-bath? do you want her

ich adjoined the kitchen, “on your way back from Monsieur de Soli

ot to go now,

tory in order,” said Lemulquinier, facing the two

ho was just then descending the stairs, “can y

!” cried Martha, as she heard Monsieur Clae

was a fruitful cause of quarrel between the two women and Lemulquinier, whose cold-hea

luence the future of the Claes family when, at a later