!" exclaimed
Felicie, while Madame Michon was putting on her stockings under her
skirt.

Constantin Marc assured her that Durville did not even dream of any such
thing, and begged her not to be uneasy.

And Dr. Socrates resumed his discourse.

"We ourselves, of a clear night, when we gaze at Spica Virginis, which
is throbbing above the top of a poplar, can see at one and the same time
that which was and that which is. And it may be said with equal truth
that we see that which is and that which will be. For if the star, such
as it appears to us, represents the past as compared with the tree, the
tree constitutes the future as compared with the star. Yet the star,
which, from afar, shows us its tiny, fiery countenance, not as it is
to-day, but as it was in the time of our youth, perhaps even before our
birth, and the poplar-tree, whose young leaves are trembling in the
fresh night air, come together within us in the same moment of time, and
to us are present simultaneously. We say of a thing that it is in the
present when we have a precise perception of it. We say that it is in
the past when we preserve but an indistinct image of it. A thing may
have been accomplished millions of years ago, yet if it makes the
strongest possible impression upon us it will not be for us a thing of
the past; it will be present. The order in which things revolve in the
depths of the universe is unknown to us. We know only the order of our
perceptions. To believe that the future does not exist, because we do
not know it, is like believing that a book is not finished because we
have not finished reading it."

The doctor paused for a moment. And Nanteuil, in the silence which
followed, heard the sound of her heart beating. She exclaimed:

"Continue, my dear Socrates, continue, I beg you. If you only knew how
much good you do me by talking! You think that I am not listening to a
word you say. But it distracts me to hear you talking of far-away
things; it makes me feel that there is something else besides my
entrance; it prevents me from giving way to the blues. Talk about
anything you like, but do not stop."

The wise Socrates, who had doubtless anticipated the benign influence
which his speech was exerting over the actress, resumed his lecture:

"The universe is constructed inevitably as a triangle of which two
angles and one side are given. Future things are determined. They are
from that moment finished. They are as if they existed. I