“To do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to a man⁠—the mystery, the power, the freedom. Drawbacks I saw none. You have only to think! And I, a shabby, poverty-struck, hemmed-in demonstrator, teaching fools in a provincial college, might suddenly become⁠—this. I ask you, Kemp if you ⁠ ⁠… Anyone, I tell you, would have flung himself upon that research. And I worked three years, and every mountain of difficulty I toiled over showed another from its summit. The infinite details! And the exasperation! A professor, a provincial professor, always prying. ‘When are you going to publish this work of yours?’ was his everlasting question. And the students, the cramped means! Three years I had of it⁠—

“And after three years of secrecy and exasperation, I found that to complete it was impossible⁠—impossible.”

“How?” asked Kemp.

“Money,” said the invisible man, and went again to stare out of the window.