I had an interest in seeing to it myself, when we first inhabited the palace.

My favourite study is the study of experimental chemistry--and my workshop, since we have been in Venice, is down here." 'These last words explained a curious smell in the vaults, which we noticed the moment we entered them.

We can only describe the smell by saying that it was of a twofold sort--faintly aromatic, as it were, in its first effect, but with some after-odour very sickening in our nostrils.

The Baron's furnaces and retorts, and other things, were all there to speak for themselves, together with some packages of chemicals, having the name and address of the person who had supplied them plainly visible on their labels.

"Not a pleasant place for study," Baron Rivar observed, "but my sister is timid.