A NEW YEAR'S FABLE
261
"May I take this thing?" I could not resist asking.
"You are wasting time!" she exclaimed, raising her voice,
mimicking either the bandit or myself. "Yes! Yes! Yes! All
this is yours. You can take all the apparatus! Even the lotus!"
It seemed she was annoyed by something.
"Well, yes, of course," she suddenly said musingly. "He
altered his face, his voice, he had to change rooms too. So that
no one should know or say anything.... And even friends...."
I should have pondered these words! But as I have said, I
was then under the authority of a new discipline, which had
turned everything I thought upside down. I dismissed her
chatter with a wave of my hand.
In
<Ii
single night I had made a huge stride in my work. I
proved the validity of my abstract premises. At this rate, I
would attain my first concrete results in about eight months,
and then I should be able to involve the whole Institute in my
cause. All the sceptics would have to give in.
Oblivious of everything around me, I arrived next morn–
ing at our laboratory. In the doorway I heard a commotion.
It seems that my steadfast opponent S. had already written
a reply to my article!
"What an operator!" our chief exclaimed ironically, and
each of his words was greeted with a wave of wild laughter
from his colleagues.
They were all grouped around my desk, the chief roaring
with laughter, holding his belly. This perfect picture lacked
only the author with the pen behind his ear, that is to say,
myself.
"Well, dear competitor, it's up to you now," the chief said,
placing the newspaper clipping on my desk.
But I astonished them. I did not even begin to read the
article of that S., who now struck me as a very naive and
in
no way dangerous eccentric. He no longer inflamed me: another
fire had been ignited. I waved him away like
<Ii
mosquito. I
must add, getting ahead of my story, that this S. continued for
