the stove in the meantime. Excuse me. Good day, doctor,” (for the chemist much enjoyed pronouncing the word “doctor,” as if addressing another by it reflected on himself some of the grandeur that he found in it). “Now, take care not to upset the mortars! You’d better fetch some chairs from the little room; you know very well that the armchairs are not to be taken out of the drawing-room.”
And to put his armchair back in its place he was darting away from the counter, when Binet asked him for half an ounce of sugar acid.
“Sugar acid!” said the chemist contemptuously, “don’t know it; I’m ignorant of it! But perhaps you want oxalic acid. It is oxalic acid, isn’t it?”
Binet explained that he wanted a corrosive to make himself some copper-water with which to remove rust from his hunting things.
Emma shuddered. The chemist began saying—
“Indeed the weather is not propitious on account of the damp.”
“Nevertheless,” replied the tax-collector, with a sly look, “there are people who like it.”
She was stifling.
“And give me—”
“Will he never go?” thought she.
“Half an ounce of resin and turpentine, four ounces of yellow wax, and three half ounces of animal charcoal, if you please, to clean the varnished leather of my togs.”
The druggist was beginning to cut the wax when Madame Homais appeared, Irma in her arms, Napoléon by her side, and Athalie following.