. . . and there was for a moment an unbreakable bond between us: the eternal bond of chemistry.I glowed with all the fire of a newborn galaxy.

Have you ever wondered, Dogger," I asked, "if wickedness is a chemical state?""Indeed I have, Miss Flavia," he said. "I have sometimes thought of little else.

I had once repeated the experiment to reassure myself that this was so, and it was. Ashes to ashes; starch to sugar. A little window into the Creation

I had found by experience that putting things down on paper helped to clear the mind in precisely the same way, as Mrs. Mullet had taught me, that an eggshell clarifies the consommé or the coffee, which, of course, is a simple matter of chemistry. The albumin contained in the eggshell has the property of collecting and binding the rubbish that floats in the dark liquid, which can then be removed and discarded in a single reeking clot: a perfect description of the writing process.

Chicken fizz! O Lord, protect all of us who toil in the vineyards of experimental chemistry!

It would not be out of order to remark here that a chemist's work is never done. Those choosing it asa profession ought to know at the outset that most of their lives will be spent washing up.