But this deserted condition of the place had been the determining
reason for the choice made by Monsieur Stangerson and his daughter.
Monsieur Stangerson was already celebrated. He had returned from
America, where his works had made a great stir. The book which he
had published at Philadelphia, on the "Dissociation of Matter by
Electric Action," had aroused opposition throughout the whole
scientific world. Monsieur Stangerson was a Frenchman, but of
American origin. Important matters relating to a legacy had kept
him for several years in the United States, where he had continued
the work begun by him in France, whither he had returned in
possession of a large fortune. This fortune was a great boon to
him; for, though he might have made millions of dollars by
exploiting two or three of his chemical discoveries relative to
new processes of dyeing, it was always repugnant to him to use
for his own private gain the wonderful gift of invention he had
received from nature. He considered he owed it to mankind, and
all that his genius brought into the world went, by this
philosophical view of his duty, into the public lap.
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