sold his professional connection, and was only waiting
for M. Milaud's promotion to take the public prosecutor's place, which
had been promised to him by the Comtesse du Chatelet. The public
prosecutor's second deputy was appointed first deputy to the Court of
Limoges, the Keeper of the Seals sent a man of his own to Angouleme,
and the post of first deputy was kept vacant for a couple of months.
The interval was Petit-Claud's honeymoon.

While Boniface Cointet was in Paris, David made a first experimental
batch of unsized paper far superior to that in common use for
newspapers. He followed it up with a second batch of magnificent
vellum paper for fine printing, and this the Cointets used for a new
edition of their diocesan prayer-book. The material had been privately
prepared by David himself; he would have no helpers but Kolb and
Marion.

When Boniface came back the whole affair wore a different aspect; he
looked at the samples, and was fairly satisfied.

"My good friend," he said, "the whole trade of Angouleme is in crown
paper. We must make the best possible crown paper at half the present
price; that is the first and foremost question for us."

Then David tried to size the pulp for the desired paper, and the
result was a harsh surface with grains of size distributed all over
it. On the day when the experiment was concluded and David held the
sheets in his hand, he went away to find a spot where he could be
alone and swallow his bitter disappointment. But Boniface Cointet went
in search of him and comforted him. Boniface was delightfully amiable.

"Do not lose heart," he said; "go on! I am a good fellow, I understand
you; I will stand by you to the end."

"Really," David said to his wife at dinner, "we are with good people;
I should not have expected that the tall Cointet would be so
generous." And he repeated his conversation with his wily partner.

Three months were spent in experiments. David slept at the mill; he
noted the effects of various preparations upon the pulp. At one time
he attributed his non-success to an admixture of rag-pulp with his own
ingredients, and made a batch entirely composed of the new material;
at another, he endeavored to size pulp made exclusively from rags;
persevering in his experiments under the eyes of the tall Cointet,
whom he had ceased to mistrust, until he had tried every possible
combination of pulp and size. David lived in the paper-mill for the
first six months of 1823