The appearance of it evidently reassured him, for the look of anxiety
cleared away from his features, and he uttered an exclamation of relief.
Taking a handful of a whitish powder from a trencher at his side he
threw it into the pipkin, the contents of which began immediately to
seethe and froth over into the fire, causing the flames to assume the
strange greenish hue which we had observed before entering.
This treatment had the effect of clearing the fluid, for the chemist was
enabled to pour off into a bottle a quantity of perfectly watery
transparent liquid, while a brownish sediment remained in the vessel,
and was emptied out upon a sheet of paper. This done, Sir Jacob
Clancing pushed aside all his bottles, and turned towards us with a
smiling face and a lighter air.
'We shall see what my poor larder can furnish forth,' said he.
'Meanwhile, this odour may be offensive to your untrained nostrils, so
we shall away with it. He threw a few grains of some balsamic resin
into the brazier, which at once filled the chamber with a most agreeable
perfume. He then laid a white cloth upon the table, and taking from a
cupboard a dish of cold trout and a large meat pasty, he placed them
upon it, and invited us to draw up our settles and set to work.
Pages:
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173