XVII
How Doctor Heraclius Gloss Set About Finding the Author of the Manuscript
A few days later readers of the Balançon Star noted with astonishment on the fourth page of the paper the following advertisement:
Pythagoras—Rome in 184—memory recovered on the pedestal of a statue of Jupiter—philosopher, architect, soldier, workman, monk, surveyor, doctor, poet, sailor—think and remember—the story of your life is in my hands. Write H. G. ℅ P.O. Balançon.
The doctor never doubted that if the man whom he so eagerly desired to find happened to read this notice, incomprehensible to everyone else, he would at once grasp its hidden meaning and put in an appearance. So every day before sitting down to his meal he went to the Post Office to ask if there were any letters addressed to H. G. and each time he pushed open the door on which was written “Letters, Inquiries, Prepayments,” he was actually more agitated than a lover on the point of opening his first letter from his mistress.
But alas! day followed day and was despairingly like its predecessor: the clerk gave the Doctor the same answer each morning; and each morning the latter returned home more gloomy and more discouraged. But the inhabitants of Balançon, like everybody else in the world, were subtle, indiscreet, slanderous and inquisitive, and soon connected the surprising notice inserted in the Star with the daily visits of the Doctor to the Post Office. And then they asked themselves what mystery there was in the affair and began to discuss it.