He was genuinely, honestly angry.

It was strange how much he took the matter to heart.
"He could not," Basterga answered.

"He repeated the process again and again, but the peculiar product, which at the first trial had resulted from the precipitation, was not obtained." "There was something lacking!" "There was something lacking," Basterga answered.

"But what that was which was lacking, or how it had entered into the alembic in the first instance, could not be discovered.

The sage tried the experiment under all known conditions, and particularly when the moon was in the same quarter and when the sun was in the same house.