who bore a striking resemblance, especially in her childhood,
to Lantier, her mother's first lover. But what I am very rich in is in
examples of reversion to the original stock--the three finest cases,
Marthe, Jeanne, and Charles, resembling Aunt Dide; the resemblance
thus passing over one, two, and three generations. This is certainly
exceptional, for I scarcely believe in atavism; it seems to me that
the new elements brought by the partners, accidents, and the infinite
variety of crossings must rapidly efface particular characteristics, so
as to bring back the individual to the general type. And there remains
variation--Helene, Jean, Angelique. This is the combination, the
chemical mixture in which the physical and mental characteristics of the
parents are blended, without any of their traits seeming to reappear in
the new being."

There was silence for a moment. Clotilde had listened to him with
profound attention, wishing to understand. And he remained absorbed in
thought, his eyes still fixed on the tree, in the desire to judge his
work impartially. He then continued in a low tone, as if speaking to
himself:

"Yes, that is as scientific as possible. I have placed there only the
members of the family, and I had to give an equal part to the partners,
to the fathers and mothers come from outside, whose blood has mingled
with ours, and therefore modified it. I had indeed made a mathematically
exact tree, the father and the mother bequeathing themselves, by halves,
to the child, from generation to generation, so that in Charles, for
example, Aunt Dide's part would have been only a twelfth--which would
be absurd, since the physical resemblance is there complete. I have
therefore thought it sufficient to indicate the elements come from
elsewhere, taking into account marriages and the new factor which each
introduced. Ah! these sciences that are yet in their infancy, in which
hypothesis speaks stammeringly, and imagination rules, these are the
domain of the poet as much as of the scientist. Poets go as pioneers
in the advance guard, and they often discover new countries, suggesting
solutions. There is there a borderland which belongs to them, between
the conquered, the definitive truth, and the unknown, whence the
truth of to-morrow will be torn. What an immense fresco there is to be
painted, what a stupendous human tragedy, what a comedy there is to
be written with heredity, which is the very genesis of families, of
so