law, I could not submit to it."

"It is like the examinations," observed Marechal, looking slyly at young
Desvarennes, who was drawing himself up to his full height; "examinations
never suited you."

"Never," said Savinien, energetically. "They wished to get me into the
Polytechnic School; impossible! Then the Central School; no better.
I astonished the examiners by the novelty of my ideas. They refused me."

"Well, you know," retorted Marechal, "if you began by overthrowing their
theories--"

"That's it!" cried Savinien, triumphantly. "My mind is stronger than I;
I must let my imagination have free run, and no one will ever know what
that particular turn of mind has cost me. Even my family do not think me
serious. Aunt Desvarennes has forbidden any kind of enterprise, under
pretence that I bear her name, and that I might compromise it because I
have twice failed. My aunt paid, it is true. Do you think it is
generous of her to take advantage of my situation, and prohibit my trying
to succeed? Are inventors judged by three or four failures? If my aunt
had allowed me I should have astonished the world."

"She feared, above all," said Marechal, simply, "to see you astonishing
the Tribunal of Commerce."

"Oh! you, too," moaned Savinien, "are in league with my enemies; you
make no account of me."

And young Desvarennes sank as if crushed into an armchair and began to