Whether he really understood the drift of his master's researches from certain exclamations which escaped the chemist when expected results disappointed him, or whether the innate tendency of mankind towards imitation made him adopt the ideas of the man in whose atmosphere he lived, certain it is that Lemulquinier had conceived for his master a superstitious feeling that was a mixture of terror, admiration, and selfishness.

The laboratory was to him what a lottery-office is to the masses,--organized hope.

Every night he went to bed saying to himself, "To-morrow we may float in gold"; and every morning he woke with a faith as firm as that of the night before.
His name proved that his origin was wholly Flemish.

In former days the lower classes were known by some name or nickname derived from their trades, their surroundings, their physical conformation, or their moral qualities.

This name became the patronymic of the burgher family which each established as soon as he obtained his freedom.