-in fact--the question."

Some moments after, they reached the door of the gasworks.

"Can we see Doctor Ox?" they asked.

Doctor Ox could always be seen by the first authorities of the
town, and they were at once introduced into the celebrated
physiologist's study.

Perhaps the two notables waited for the doctor at least an hour;
at least it is reasonable to suppose so, as the burgomaster--a
thing that had never before happened in his life--betrayed a
certain amount of impatience, from which his companion was not
exempt.

Doctor Ox came in at last, and began to excuse himself for having
kept them waiting; but he had to approve a plan for the
gasometer, rectify some of the machinery--But everything was
going on well! The pipes intended for the oxygen were already
laid. In a few months the town would be splendidly lighted. The
two notables might even now see the orifices of the pipes which
were laid on in the laboratory.

Then the doctor begged to know to what he was indebted for the
honour of this visit.

"Only to see you, doctor; to see you," replied Van Tricasse. "It
is long since we have had the pleasure. We go abroad but little
in our good town of Quiquendone. We count our steps and measure
our walks. We are happy when nothing disturbs the uniformity of
our habits."

Niklausse looked at his friend. His friend had never said so much
at once--at least, without taking time, and giving long intervals
between his sentences. It seemed to him that Van Tricasse
expressed himself with a certain volubility, which was by no
means common with him. Niklausse himself experienced a kind of
irresistible desire to talk.

As for Doctor Ox, he looked at the burgomaster with sly
attention.

Van Tricasse, who never argued until he had snugly ensconced
himself in a spacious armchair, had risen to his feet. I know not
what nervous excitement, quite foreign to his temperament, had
taken possession of him. He did not gesticulate as yet, but this
could not be far off. As for the counsellor, he rubbed his legs,
and breathed with slow and long gasps. His look became animated
little by little, and he had "decided" to support at all hazards,
if need be, his trusty friend the burgomaster.

Van Tricasse got up and took several steps; then he came back,
and stood facing the doctor.

"And in how many months," he asked in a somewhat emphatic tome,
"do you say that your work will be finished?"

"In three or four months, Monsieur t