I told him that the ingredients were lead and bismuth; the first, combining with mercury, and the second giving to the whole the perfect fluidity necessary to strain it through the chamois leather.

The Greek went out to try the amalgam--I do not know where, and I dined alone, but toward evening he came back, looking very disconsolate, as I had expected.
"I have made the amalgam," he said, "but the mercury is not perfect." "It is equal to that which I have sold in Portici, and that is the very letter of your engagement." "But my engagement says likewise without injury to the quality.

You must agree that the quality is injured, because it is no longer susceptible of further augmentation." "You knew that to be the case; the point is its equality with the mercury I sold in Portici.

But we shall have to go to law, and you will lose.

I am sorry the secret should become public.