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Barr, Robert, 1850-1912

"A Rock in the Baltic"

'"
Katherine paused in the reading, and looked across at her auditor, an
expression almost of despair in her eloquent eyes.
"Dorothy, what under heaven is Catalysis?"
"Don't ask me," replied Dorothy, suppressing a laugh, struck by the
ludicrousness of any young and beautiful woman pressing any such
sentiments as these to her bosom.
"Have you ever heard of a Catalytic process, Dorothy?" beseeched
Katherine. "It is one of the phrases he uses."
"Never; go on with the letter, Kate."
"'I saw at once that if I could use Catalytic process which would be
instantaneous in its solidifying effect on my liquid limestone,
instead of waiting upon slow evaporation, I could turn out building
stone faster than one can make brick. You, I am sure, with your more
alert mind, saw this when you marked that passage in red.'"
"Oh, Dorothy," almost whimpered Katherine, leaning back, "how can I go
on? Don't you see what a sneak I am? It was bad enough to cozen with
my heedless, random markings of the book, but to think that line of
red ink might have been marked in his blood, for I nearly sent the
poor boy to his death."
"Go on, Katherine, go on, go on!"
"'In my search for a Catalytic whose substance would remain unchanged
after the reaction, I quite overlooked the chemical ingredients of one
of the materials I was dealing with, and the result was an explosion
which nearly blew the roof off the shop, and quite startled poor
Drummond out of a year's growth.


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