"You seem very happy, uncle!" said I to Noël Dorgeroux, who walked briskly on the way to the station, whistling one gay tune after another. "Yes," he replied, "I am happy as a man is who has come to a decision." "You've come to a decision, uncle?" "And a very serious one at that. It has cost me a sleepless night; but it's worth it." "May I ask . . . ?" "Certainly. In two words, it's this: I'm going to pull down the sheds in the Yard and build an amphitheatre there." "What for?" "To exploit the thing . . . the thing you know of." "How do you mean, to exploit it?" "Why, it's a tremendously important discovery; and, if properly worked, it will give me the money which I have always been trying for, not for its own sake, but because of the resources which it will bring me, money with the aid of which I shall be able to continue my labours without being checked by secondary considerations. There are millions to be made, Victorien, millions! And what shall I not accomplish with millions! This brain of mine," he went on, tapping his forehead, "is simply crammed with ideas, with theories which need verifying. And it all takes money. . . . Money! Money! You know how little I care about money! But I want millions, if I am to carry through my work. And those millions I shall have!" Mastering his enthusiasm, he took my arm and explained: "First of all, the Yard cleared of its rubbish and levelled. After that, the amphitheatre, with five stages of benches facing the wall. For of course the wall remains: it is the essential point, the reason for the whole thing. But I shall heighten and widen it; and, when it is quite unobstructed, there will be a clear view of it from every seat. You follow me, don't you?" "I follow you, uncle. But do you think people will come?" "Will they come? What! You, who know, ask me that question! Why, they will pay gold for the worst seat, they'll give a king's ransom to get in! I'm so sure of it that I shall put all I have left, the last remnant of my savings, into the business. And within a year I shall have amassed incalculable wealth." "The place is quite small, uncle, and you will have only a limited number of seats." "A thousand, a thousand seats, comfortably! At two hundred francs a seat to begin with, at a thousand francs! . . ." "I say, uncle! Seats in the open air, exposed to the rain, to the cold, to all sorts of weather!"