enlaced: he concluded that his wife was in fault; and he was just
beginning, in an awful voice, 'Anastasie--,' when she looked up at him,
smiling, with an upraised finger; and he held his peace, wondering, while
she led the boy to his attic.
CHAPTER IV. THE EDUCATION OF A PHILOSOPHER.
The installation of the adopted stable-boy was thus happily effected, and
the wheels of life continued to run smoothly in the Doctor's house. Jean-
Marie did his horse and carriage duty in the morning; sometimes helped in
the housework; sometimes walked abroad with the Doctor, to drink wisdom
from the fountain-head; and was introduced at night to the sciences and
the dead tongues. He retained his singular placidity of mind and manner;
he was rarely in fault; but he made only a very partial progress in his
studies, and remained much of a stranger in the family.
The Doctor was a pattern of regularity. All forenoon he worked on his
great book, the 'Comparative Pharmacopoeia, or Historical Dictionary of
all Medicines,' which as yet consisted principally of slips of paper and
pins. When finished, it was to fill many personable volumes, and to
combine antiquarian interest with professional utility. But the Doctor
was studious of literary graces and the picturesque; an anecdote, a touch
of manners, a moral qualification, or a sounding epithet was sure to be
preferred before a piece of science; a little more, and he would have
written the 'Comparative Pharmacopoeia' in verse! The article 'Mummia,'
for instance, was already complete, though the remainder of the work had
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