be more
glorious, because incurred for pure science, and in face of a
certainty. It is precisely on this account that the act will insure to
our names the honor and reverence of all future generations."

"Nonsense. You will be pitied as a suicide and madman, and I shall be
hung at the next assizes."

"Coward! traitor!" I burst forth in ungovernable passion. "_This_ is
the extent of your devotion, then! _These_ your narrow calculations
and sordid reckonings! You, the one soul in whom I trusted, the one
friend I had in the world capable of appreciating me! Oh, shame on
such ingratitude! Oh, miserable me, doomed to such disappointment!"

He was deeply hurt. I saw that I had made some impression upon
the hard skepticism with which the world had incased a naturally
generous nature, and pressed my advantage. I poured out a torrent of
eloquence, reasoning, prayers, entreaty. I wrestled with him as for
the salvation of a soul; the night waned on our hot conversation, and
finally, toward three o'clock, when the gray dawn began to point
weirdly in the East, I gained the victory. Guy promised to fulfil
my wish, at whatever risks to himself, and with the certainty of
sacrificing my life in the experiment. On the spot, I drew up a paper
testifying that the operation should have been performed at my express
command, and stated the reasons in full. To this document, I trusted
to obtain in the country the signature of two witnesses sufficiently
incurious to sign without reading.

For it was decided that, for the sake of greater secrecy and
convenience, we should withdraw to the country, and I selected a
locality about four hours' distance from Paris, where we were both
unknown. These details settled, we separated for sleep.

But I think neither of us closed our eyes that night; and Guy was so
pale and haggard the next morning that I hardly knew him. During the
week that we remained at Paris, making preparations for our departure,
he hardly ate, or slept, or spoke, but seemed to waste and droop like
a man in the clutch of a fiend. I became anxious. I was afraid he
would fall ill, and thus be incapacitated for the performance of his
duty.

However, we managed to leave the city without accident, and installed
ourselves in the lonely dwelling I had rented. We hired an old woman
from the village to take charge of our housekeeping, and then devoted
ourselves to our work. We engaged in a preliminary series of
experiments, through whic