Page:The White Stone.djvu/205

Rh "In this fashion did Michel discourse while steering his aeroplane. I am recording the meaning of his words as exactly as I can. I regret my inability, owing to a lack of memory, and also from fear of not making myself understood, to reproduce his language in all its expressiveness and its movement. The baker and his contemporaries spoke a language astonishing me at first by the novelty of its vocabulary and syntax, and especially by its pithy and flowing construction.

"Michel came to ground on the terrace of a modest but pleasing dwelling.

"'We have arrived,' he said; '' tis here that I live. You will sup with comrades who, like myself, take an interest in statistics.'

"'What! You a statistician! I thought you were a baker.

"'I am a baker, six hours of the day. This is the duration of the day's work as determined for nearly a century by the Federal Committee. The rest of the time I give up to statistical labours. It is the science which has stepped into history's shoes. The historians of old related the brilliant deeds of the few. Ours register all that is produced and consumed?'

"After having conducted me to a hydrotherapic closet established on the roof, Michel led me downstairs to the dining-room lit up by electricity,