“Charmed to see you,” he said, offering Emma a hand to help her into the Hirondelle. Then he hung up his cheminots to the cords of the netting, and remained bareheaded in an attitude pensive and Napoleonic.

But when the blind man appeared as usual at the foot of the hill he exclaimed⁠—

“I can’t understand why the authorities tolerate such culpable industries. Such unfortunates should be locked up and forced to work. Progress, my word! creeps at a snail’s pace. We are floundering about in mere barbarism.”

The blind man held out his hat, that flapped about at the door, as if it were a bag in the lining that had come unnailed.

“This,” said the chemist, “is a scrofulous affection.”