Page 26 (1/2)
"Did you catch that?" Alexia asked Madame Lefoux in a whispered tone
The Frenchwoman shook her head "I do not speak Italian You?"
"Apparently not well enough"
"Real y? Italian and French?"
"And a little Spanish and sorinned She was proud of her acadeoverness for a while Unfortunately, Ma my head with useful information and dismissed her in favor of a dance instructor"
The servant reappeared with a tray covered in a white linen cloth The preceptor lifted this with a flourish to reveal not tea but a piece of ued She apparently preferred such things to tea There was no accounting for taste
The preceptor al owed the inventor to exath
Alexia thought it looked… unco transducer? It bears a passing resenetometer of some kind?"
The Templar shook his head, face stiff Alexia realized what it was that bothered her so excessively about this man--his eyes were flat and expressionless
"You are clearly an expert in your field, Madanetometer
You wil not have seen one of these before Not even in one of England’s fah, you e-Wilsdorf?"
"Real y?" Alexia perked up at that name
Both Floote and Madame Lefoux shot her dirty looks
Alexia backed hurriedly away from any show of enthusiasm "I ave her a sharp glance out of his dead eyes but seemed to accept her statement "Of course you would have He is an expert in your field; that is"--the man flashed her another nonsmile of perfect teeth--"in the field of you, as it were A ree-Wilsdorf Unfortunately, we found his faith"--he paused ful y--"inconsistent Stil , he did devise this wonderful little tool for us"
"And what is it designed to detect?" Madame Lefoux was stil troubled by her own inability to understand the gadget
The Teorously, and thesoftly A little as attached to it bycord There was a rubber stopper at the wand’s base, which corked up a glass jar in which the end of the wand resided The preceptor pul ed off the glass, exposing the wand to the air Iing noise
Madaen detector?"
The Templar shook his head
"A uess
"It cannot possibly be aether Can it?"
"Can’t it?"
Madame Lefoux was impressed "A miraculous invention, indeed Does it resonate to alpha or beta particles?" Madame Lefoux was a fol ower of the latest theory out of Germany that divided up the lower atases and divided the upper aten and two types of aetheric particles
"Unfortunately, it is not that precise Or, I should say, we do not know"
"Stil , any htly to be considered a h" Madame Lefoux bent once more over the contraption, enraptured
"Ah, not quite so important as al that" The preceptor reined in Mada the absence of aetheric particles, rather thantheir presence and quantity"
Madame Lefoux looked disappointed
The Tee-Wilsdorf referred to it as an aether absorption counter Would you al ow me to demonstrate its application?"
"Please do!"
Without further ado, thehis lips about the rubber stopper No change occurred Thenoise
"It is stil registering"
The preceptor removed the wand "Exactly!" He careful y wiped the wand doith a smal piece of cloth soaked in some kind of yel ow alcohol "Now, My Soul ess One, if you would be so kind?"
Eyebrows arched with interest, Alexia took the wand and did as he had done, closing her lips about the end The wand tasted pleasantly of some sweetened lemony liquor Whatever the preceptor had used to clean it was hty tasty Distracted by the taste, it took Alexia anoise had entirely stopped
"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Madame Lefoux, perhaps not so wary as she should have been over her use of religious language in the house of Christ’s
"Wel , then, it cannot possibly be registering aether Aether is around and inside of everything, perhaps in roundside than it is up in the aether-atmospheric layer, but it is here To silence it like that, Alexia would have to be dead"
"Merph," agreed Alexia
"So we have previously thought"
Alexia was moved by a need to speak and so reain "Are you saying the soul is coious concept" She cleaned the end as the preceptor had done, with more of the yel ow alcohol, and passed it to Mada it with interest before popping it into her own"Merfeaux" was her considered opinion