The young
officer answered him with tolerable intelligence.
"I feel," he ended with saying, "as if all my energy had
evaporated,--and I used to have no end,--just as a spirit evaporates if
it is left open to the air."
The saying struck Lefevre mightily. "Energy" stood then to Lefevre as an
almost convertible term for "electricity," and his successful
experiments with electricity had opened up to him a vast field of
conjecture, into which, on the smallest inflaming hint, he was wont to
make an excursion. Such a hint was the saying of the young officer now,
and, as he walked away, he found himself, as it were, knocking at the
door of a great discovery. But the door did not open on that summons,
and he resolved straightway to discuss the subject with Julius Courtney,
who, though an amateur, had about as complete a knowledge of it as
himself, and who could bring to bear, he believed, a finer intelligence.
He first sought Julius at the Hyacinth Club, where he frequently spent
the afternoon. Failing to find him there, he inquired for him at his
chambers in the Albany.
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