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Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
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 CONTRIBUTORS

Derek Horton, Department of Chemistry, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio,

USA, and Department of Chemistry, American University, Washington, DC, USA

Rengaswami Chandrasekaran, Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research,

Department of Food Science, 745 Agriculture Mall Drive, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, IN 47907-2009, USA

vii
 PREFACE

This 70th volume of Advances constitutes a small supplementary issue that pauses
to review the evolution of the series since it began under the title Advances in
Carbohydrate Chemistry toward the close of the Second World War, and looks
toward its future as Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry in the
ongoing documentation of a vastly expanded field of scientific disciplines where
carbohydrates play a role.
The volume opens with an appreciation of the career of Struther Arnott and his
contributions to our understanding of polysaccharide structure by use of X-ray
diffraction studies of oriented fibers. The celebrated work of Crick and Watson,
unraveling the structure and anticipating the all-encompassing biological role of
DNA, was based on the X-ray diffraction studies by Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind
Franklin at King’s College, London. Arnott’s later work in Wilkins’ laboratory
greatly extended our knowledge and understanding of the three-dimensional archi-
tecture of a wide range of polynucleotide chains by application of his Linked-Atom
Least-Squares (LALS) methodology. Arnott’s biographer, Rengaswami Chandrase-
karan, details his subsequent researches at Purdue University in the USA that extend
the compass of the technique to the structural characterization of a broad range of
polysaccharides having relevance in both biological and technological areas.
Equipped with great research talent, coupled with high administrative capacity,
Struther Arnott fulfilled important leadership roles at Purdue and subsequently at
St. Andrews University in his native Scotland. The Bibliography appended to the
memoir provides a comprehensive source of reference to the many polysaccharide
structures expertly documented by the Arnott research teams.
The Advances series set out in 1944 with the objective of presenting critical and
integrating reports, understandable by the general reader as well as the specialist, on a
wide range of topics having carbohydrates as a common theme. The report “Seven
Decades of Advances” in this current volume assesses broadly the literature record on
carbohydrates, as documented in over 350 articles published in this series during the
seventy years of its existence, and its relation to research papers published in primary
journals, as well as information in reference books, monographs, and text books that
constitute the secondary literature.
At the time this series began, reports on original research were being published in a
wide range of national journals and in many different languages. Some papers
described sound, original, and novel work, but others may have had errors of fact,
be of dubious originality, or had failed to give credit to relevant prior work. Although

ix
x PREFACE

the more-prestigious national journals exercised a level of quality control, the peer-
review system had not then developed to its current broad extent. In areas such as the
carbohydrates, where a uniform system of nomenclature did not exist, there was a
great deal of confusion in naming compounds and in their structural depiction.
It was the goal of a small group of leading carbohydrate chemists, notably Melville
L. Wolfrom and Claude S. Hudson in the USA, and Sir Norman Haworth in Great
Britain, and with the strong support of a far-sighted publisher, Kurt Jacoby (who had
just founded Academic Press), to produce an annual book series featuring reports
from invited experts on a wide distribution of topics related to carbohydrates. These
areas would include simple sugars, glycosides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides,
and deal with their structures, chemical and biochemical reactions, analytical chem-
istry, food and fiber technology, and other aspects.
Their endeavors set the stage from which the 70 volumes of Advances subsequently
developed during a span of seven decades, averaging one volume per year. The
authors contributing to the early volumes came mainly from North America and
Great Britain, but the sources have expanded progressively to include articles from
authors in countries throughout the world, from Europe, Australia, New Zealand,
South America, Asia, and Africa. During this period, Academic Press took a prom-
inent position in documenting other aspects of the carbohydrate field, with such series
as Whistler’s Methods and Aspinall’s Polysaccharides volumes, and the Pigman
books. When Academic Press became part of the Elsevier line, the breadth was
further enhanced with the founding of the journal Carbohydrate Research.
The articles published in Advances have adhered to the original policies of its
founders, and many of them remain definitive treatments of their subject, while others
reflect advances in areas still in the course of rapid development. Collected here in
chronological sequence are the published Prefaces to the individual volumes, and
these describe the subject material in all of the individual articles, as well as providing
contemporary commentary at the time the volumes were published.
Parallel with the evolution of the series there has been important progress in
defining the language of scientific communication through agreements on standard-
ized nomenclature; this has been regularly documented in the pages of the Advances
volumes. It is a tribute to the cooperative efforts volunteered by a number of
individuals that the standardization reflected in the volumes has served as a bench-
mark for widespread adoption of these nomenclature recommendations by authors
throughout the world.
An important feature of Advances has been regular obituary reports that document
the lives and motivations of major figures who have made significant contributions to
the carbohydrate field. For the particular benefit of researchers who may not have had
 PREFACE xi

the opportunity to meet or hear these past leaders in person, this volume features a
collection of portraits of all of those past leaders whose stories have been told in the
various volumes.
The editorship of the series was, with one brief interruption, in the hands of its
prime motivator, M. L. Wolfrom, until his death in 1969. Robert Stuart Tipson shared
the editorship with Wolfrom, starting with Volume 8 in 1954. He worked jointly with
the present editor until Volume 48 (1990), with the latter continuing thereafter.
The initiative of Academic Press to make back issues of Advances accessible
electronically was significantly enhanced when the Elsevier organization established
electronic access to a wide swath of the literature on carbohydrates through Science
Direct, Scopus, and other sources. The massive chemical database of Chemical
Abstracts provides records on individual carbohydrates and their derivatives, esti-
mated to comprise at least 5% of the 73 million or more substances in the CAS
Registry, and all are accessible electronically through SciFinder.
A bibliometric analysis of Advances, made in early 2013 by Professor Todd Low-
ary, revealed that 68 volumes of the series since the first issue had a total of 358
individual articles, carrying altogether 24,558 literature citations. These reports were
cited 20,582 times, with an average of 70 citations per article and a 2012 impact factor
of 7.133. The five most-cited reports were Bock and Pedersen’s 13C-NMR of mono-
saccharides article in Volume 41, with 1303 citations, the Schauer report on sialic
acids in Volume 40 (858 citations), the Volume 41 1H-NMR glycoprotein article by
Vliegenthart, Dorland, and van Halbeek (843 citations), the Schmidt–Kinzy trichloro-
acetimidate methodology in Volume 50, cited 694 times, and Legler’s article in
Volume 48 on the mechanism of glycoside hydrolases, which had 593 citations.
The content of this Advances series provides a large and unified source of reliable
reference material contributed by noted experts in the field, and is presented in clear,
understandable English without unnecessary jargon or incomprehensible acronyms.
The excellent support of the contributing authors and members of the Board of
Advisors is expected to assure a fruitful ongoing continuation of the series in the
service of the carbohydrate community.
DEREK HORTON
Washington, D.C.
Columbus, Ohio, September 2013
 ADVANCES IN CARBOHYDRATE CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY, VOL. 70

STRUTHER ARNOTT

1934–2013

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere,

Heaven did a recompense as largely send:
He gave to Misery all he had, a tear,
He gained from Heaven (’twas all he wished) a friend.
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”—Thomas Gray (1751)

The scientific world and the field of fiber crystallography have lost a major figure
with the passing of a respected and beloved colleague, Professor Struther Arnott, aged
78, on April 20, 2013, at his residence in Doncaster, a small market town in south
Yorkshire, England. Motivated by curiosity, drive, and enthusiasm, Dr. Arnott was
internationally acclaimed for his meticulous research projects and scrupulous contri-
butions to the three-dimensional structures of nucleic acids, polypeptides, and poly-
saccharides. He also took up challenging administrative positions of increasing
complexity—Department Head, Dean of Graduate School, Vice President for
Research, and University Principal—throughout a rich professional career.
An achiever, admired and appreciated by one and all, Dr. Arnott was born on
September 25, 1934, in Larkhall, a Scottish town south of Glasgow in the county of
Lanarkshire. He received exemplary high-school education between 1945 and 1952 at
the Hamilton Academy, a prestigious school founded in 1588, whose graduates enter
the top universities in the country. His scholastic accomplishments were evident even
at that young age; he was awarded the school’s Cuthbertson Science Scholarship and
Lorimer Mathematical Scholarship.
In 1952, at the age of 17, he earned a gold medal for general scholarship, as well as
a silver medal for both chemistry and mathematics. In the same year, he secured first
place in science in the University of Glasgow Open Bursary Competition. Equipped
with this strong educational foundation, he entered the University of Glasgow, where
in 1956 he got his B.Sc. degree in Chemistry and Mathematics.

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4 RENGASWAMI CHANDRASEKARAN

Inspired by a passion for science and set on visualizing the innate arrangement of
molecules and their associated functionality at the atomic level, Dr. Arnott worked
with Drs. D.H.R. Barton and J.M. Robertson in the Department of Chemistry,
University of Glasgow, as a graduate student, mastering the basics of X-ray crystal-
lography. He then undertook a heuristic investigation on limonin (C26H30O8), a six-ring
furanolactone that is the bitter principle of citrus fruits, a particularly arduous task
during a time when computers and programs were still quite primitive. Despite the large
number of atoms in the molecule, he successfully solved the limonin structure by using
the phases calculated from the position of the iodine atom in its iodoacetate
derivative—a Herculean task indeed. This earned him his Ph.D. degree in 1960.
Dr. Arnott then moved on to King’s College, London, to join Dr. M.H.F. Wilkins,
whose ambition was to unravel the molecular details of the DNA double-helix
proposed in 1953 by Crick and Watson. Dr. Arnott’s strong proficiency in mathemat-
ics was a major driving force behind his taking up this challenge. He soon developed a
suitable and elegant methodology, involving several complex equations in matrix
notation, for the refinement of nucleic acid structures. During a talk on “Diffraction
studies of biological molecules” given in 1963 at the Aberdeen meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, Dr. Arnott remarked, “To date, in the
process of integrating biology with the more physical sciences, X-ray diffraction has
played a leading part. It is for this reason that people like myself, knowing little
botany and less zoology, have ventured into the fringes of the biological jungle in the
hope of obtaining fame and fortune.” True to these words, he immersed himself in
research at the Medical Research Council Biophysics Unit at King’s College, pro-
ducing several seminal scientific contributions in the arena of X-ray fiber diffraction
in general and nucleic acids in particular.
Experimental X-ray observations on single crystals contain an enormous number of
reflections, more than adequate to allow determination of the precise atomic coordi-
nates. By contrast, stretched fibers of helical polymers, because of their rotational
symmetry, produce a mere handful of reflections, insufficient for a similar analysis. In
this context, Dr. Arnott’s statement of 1963 is worth noting: “While Perutz and
Kendrew had to move mountains of data in their analysis (of hemoglobin and
myoglobin), we have had the equal embarrassment of gleaning our structural infor-
mation from molehills of data.” A way out of this misery, he believed, was to recast
the problem in terms of fewer variables. By linking each atom in a helical repeating-
unit in a contiguous “tree geometry,” with fixed bond lengths and bond angles
(as known parameters), while conformational angles were allowed to be variable or
dependent on one another, the atomic coordinates could be generated by appropriate
mathematical formulation. Elucidation of the correct molecular shape, compatible
 OBITUARY - STRUTHER ARNOTT 5

with the sparse X-ray data, would then be within reach by scrupulous refinement of
the small number of conformational angles. Using this simple concept, he elegantly
developed the Linked-Atom Least-Squares (LALS) methodology (1966) for solving
molecular structures. Necessity was the mother of invention! From then on,
Dr. Arnott’s novel computer program, a major milestone in fiber crystallography,
paved the way for analyzing and understanding the architectures of biopolymer
systems.
The test beds for validating the new procedure were the alpha-helix (1966, 1967)
and beta-pleated sheet (1967) of poly-L-alanine and that of poly-L-proline II (1968).
Later on, a refinement performed using rich single-crystal data of (Pro-Pro-Gly)10
provided the fine structural features of collagen at high resolution (1981). Noteworthy
amongst Dr. Arnott’s pioneering successes was the clever application of Fourier
methods to confirm and conclude that the Watson–Crick base-pairing scheme was
the only viable option matching the X-ray data of B-DNA. This scheme thereby
eliminated such alternatives as the Hoogsteen and reverse Hoogsteen schemes known
at that time (1965). Dr. Arnott then embarked on double-helical RNA (1967) and
refined both structures (1969).
In 1970, the United States became Dr. Arnott’s new home when he joined the
faculty at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, as Professor in the Depart-
ment of Biological Sciences. He set up his fiber-diffraction laboratory, with new
X-ray generators and pin-hole cameras fabricated in the departmental machine shop,
by meticulously following the sketches brought from King’s College. Dr. W.E. Scott,
arriving as a postdoctoral associate, was delegated to look after the X-ray generators
in addition to his regular research. Dr. Scott had just received his Ph.D., mentored by
the well-known British carbohydrate chemist Dr. D. A. Rees of Unilever Research.
Dr. Rees had no experience in solving fiber structures using X-ray methods but was
anxious to decipher the intriguing structure–function relationships in polysaccharides,
especially in carrageenan. Dr. Arnott, while at King’s College, had helped Dr. Rees to
learn the theory and practice of X-ray diffraction of stretched fibers. Now at Purdue,
Dr. Arnott entered the carbohydrate arena enthusiastically. He swiftly solved the
structure of the gel-forming polysaccharide iota-carrageenan using his LALS proto-
col, and he published together with Drs. Scott and Rees its fascinating double-helical
arrangement (1974). This successful collaboration not only evidently catalyzed
mutual respect and lifelong admiration between these two industrious scientists but
also enhanced further scientific exploration in, and contributions to, the polysaccha-
ride field. The Arnott research group gradually grew in size, adding graduate students,
postdoctoral research associates, and visiting scholars, each working on different
structural aspects of nucleic acids and polysaccharides. While at Purdue, Dr. Arnott
6 RENGASWAMI CHANDRASEKARAN

mentored eight graduate students and 17 research associates, as well as various

visiting scientists. He is credited internationally with a total of 166 research
publications.
I had the privilege of joining Dr. Arnott’s team in 1971 to pursue nucleic acid
research. As days went by, I was increasingly fascinated by his vocabulary, scientific
knowledge, and mentoring style. During the subsequent three decades and beyond,
our combined efforts led to successful revelation of the intricate atomic arrangements
of several native as well as synthetic DNAs of repeating nucleotide sequences—a
period that witnessed rich scientific contributions to the field of nucleic acids. I also
had the privilege of fulfilling numerous requests from laboratories around the world
for the LALS program on magnetic tape; this was before the emergence of electronic
file transfers. Even more memorable was the laboratory tradition of celebrating the
fruits of hard labor—a bottle of champagne (Korbel Natural) per author of each peer-
reviewed manuscript accepted for publication—an eagerly awaited event enjoyed
almost every (other) week by one and all in the fiber team. This tradition continued in
my group in the years to follow.
It was not uncommon to see Dr. Arnott in his office looking through the micro-
scope, slowly turning the knurled knob of the fiber puller a little at a time, so as to
stretch and orient the fiber under controlled humidity. His team was equally diligent in
producing suitable specimens for conducting careful structural analyses of industri-
ally important gel-forming polysaccharides, performed to rationalize the molecular
basis of gelation. Such materials are routinely exploited to texture foods and for use as
biologically compatible materials in medical applications. Results emerging from the
Arnott group demonstrated the carrageenan-like double-helical structures for agarose
and its derivatives (1974); the cation-mediated interactions among pectin single-
helices that stabilize junction zones, explaining why divalent cations produce stronger
gels than do monovalent cations (1981); and similar interactions being the origin of
gelation in gellan, which adopts a slim and extended double-helical form (1988).
In addition, his attention focused on the medically important glycosaminoglycans
of vertebrate connective tissues, such as hyaluronate from synovial fluid and vitreous
humor of the eye, and chondroitin and dermatan sulfates from cartilage and skin.
Notable was the existence of hyaluronic acid in its nine distinct allomorphs with
3-fold and 4-fold helical structures (1975); under certain circumstances, the latter
could relax and assume a lower symmetry (1975); the helix pitch could significantly
contract or expand—as would a spring—induced by pH, water, and cations (1975);
and a novel antiparallel double-helix stable at extremely low pH (3.0–4.0) in the
presence of potassium ions (1975, 1983), in line with the versatile functionality of this
polysaccharide. This work embodied the first systematic investigation that revealed
 OBITUARY - STRUTHER ARNOTT 7

the orchestrated roles of atomic interactions for the observed polymorphism. Accord-
ing to the results reported, transition from one form to another was achieved by
breaking-old-and-making-new hydrogen bonds in the helix, and by deploying differ-
ence Fourier maps, cations were traced to be the key players. Furthermore, similar
helical structures and atomic interactions were demonstrated for three other glycos-
aminoglycans, chondroitin sulfate (1978, 1983), dermatan sulfate (1973, 1983), and
keratan sulfate (1974). Based on these findings, the Arnott team visualized how
cations could specifically transform the polymorphic polysaccharide structures in
the intercellular matrices of animal and human tissues.
Befitting his scientific contributions in this field, Dr. Arnott joined Dr. Rees and his
colleague Dr. E.R. Morris as co-editor of the book Molecular Biophysics of the
Extracellular Matrix, published in 1984. Later on, Dr. Arnott and my team together
produced a revised packing arrangement of helices in alginate gels, providing, for the
first time, the junction-zone details (2000)—far beyond the scope of the “egg-box”
model cartooned 40 years earlier.
From similar rigorous investigations of nucleic acids, the Arnott group consoli-
dated early DNA and RNA structures and then determined the molecular architectures
of many new allomorphs. Significant contributions were as follows: Single-helical


poly(C) (1976). Double-helical—poly(dG) poly(dC) (1974); poly(dA) poly(dT)




(1983); poly d(AT) poly d(AT) (1974); poly d(IC) poly d(IC) (1983); poly d(GC)




poly d(GC) (1983). Triple-helical—poly(dT) poly(dA) poly(dT) (1974, 2000);





poly(U) poly(A) poly(U) (1973, 2000); poly(I) poly(A) poly(I) (1973, 2000).
Four-stranded helix of poly(I) (1974). Left-handed Z-DNA—poly d(GC) poly

d(GC) (1980). A novel unwound DNA (1980). A seminal article emerged on the
polymorphism of DNA double-helices, highlighting the variations in molecular
morphology influenced by nucleotide-base sequence (1980); later, a compendium
on the shapes of nucleic acid helices was published (1989). The wide variety of DNA
and RNA structures enabled us all to appreciate the extent to which polynucleotide
sequences present themselves to interacting proteins and drugs in diverse ways.
During 1975–1980, Dr. Arnott served as Head of the Department of Biological
Sciences at Purdue. He encouraged fellow faculty members to investigate more
complex biological systems, augmented developmental biology and physiology, and
established modern ecology. These administrative chores interfered little with his
commitment to research. Although Purdue has no medical school, he successfully
persuaded the National Cancer Institute to set up a Cancer Center and the Arthritis
Foundation to support his own research on connective tissue.
Armed with admirable administrative skills that paralleled his scientific abilities,
Dr. Arnott was selected in 1980 to serve at Purdue as Vice President for Research and
8 RENGASWAMI CHANDRASEKARAN

Dean of the Graduate School. He performed the juggling act of tackling dual respon-
sibilities as well as the biology professorship, with finesse through 1985. As Research
Vice President, he distributed internal research funds and supervised all research
centers and interdisciplinary graduate programs (such as American Studies, Biochem-
istry, Comparative Literature, Plant Physiology, and Public Policy). As Graduate
Dean, he maintained and delivered academic quality control (promotion and tenuring
of faculty members, admission and retention of graduate students) throughout the five
Purdue campuses (65,000 students).
In 1986, Dr. Arnott returned to his native Scotland as Principal and Vice Chancellor
(namely, President and Chief Executive) of The University of St. Andrews, Scotland’s
first university, founded in 1413. As stated by him, “My task was to maintain ancient
distinction and enhance modern impactfulness, despite a rural setting and a small
(5500 student) size. The outcome has been that Edinburgh (a 15,000-student civic
university founded in 1585) and St. Andrews now share the top two positions for
research in Scotland, as ranked by the UK-wide 1996 Research Assessment Exercise.
St. Andrews and Edinburgh also share the top two teaching positions, as ranked by the
continuing Teaching Quality Assessment in Scotland. Moreover, for each year in the
UK, St. Andrews has invariably been near the top of any ranking of universities that
measures the employability of its graduates. According to the (London) Times’
independent assessment of UK universities for its 1997 Good Universities’ Guide,
St. Andrews was hailed as ‘Scotland’s Finest’. These comparative advantages have
been achieved by transparent planning, robust finances, novel fund-raising, and
investment in up-to-date facilities, while preserving St. Andrews’ historic image.
Relentless discrimination in recruiting new academic and managerial colleagues has
been important, as has been the maintenance of a cosmopolitan population of both
senior and junior members. Students come from Europe (10%), the US (10%), Japan
(5%), and other parts of the UK (40%) as well as from Scotland (35%) to enjoy a high-
quality melting-pot experience in an entirely residential university.”
Dr. Arnott’s vision of a university received royal endorsement in the year 2000 with
the recruitment of Prince William of Wales. At this high point, after a decade and a
half of successful scholarship and an administrative career, Dr. Arnott relinquished
the helm. In recognition of his stellar contributions, St. Andrews named a lecture hall
in his honor.
In 2002, Dr. Arnott accepted a Visiting Professorship at the Imperial College,
London, and a similar position in 2003 at the School of Pharmacy of the University
of London. In addition to regularly dropping by the two laboratories to “rub shoul-
ders” with colleagues and keep abreast of current research progress in biopolymers, he
took time to write two historical articles on nucleic acids (2005, 2006). Furthermore,
 OBITUARY - STRUTHER ARNOTT 9

he redefined the structure for crystalline natural rubber, a subject of controversy for at
least 60 years, and published the new and exciting results (2006).
Dr. Arnott’s expertise in the structures of not-fully-crystalline materials resulted
in consultancies with Unilever (England), DuPont (Delaware, USA), and Proctor
and Gamble (Ohio, USA). Because of his contributions to the theoretical and
practical aspects of biopolymers, he was chosen as a member of the US National
Academy delegation to the Soviet Union, twice, in 1972 and 1975, and a member of
the National Science Foundation Commission on Crystallography in 1982. He also
served as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Theoretical Biology
(1976–1978) and the International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
(1978–1980). Over a span exceeding three decades, his scholarly achievements in
molecular physics and biology were recognized by multiple leading institutions. In
1970, the Royal Society of Chemistry, London, named him a Fellow (FRSC). Twice,
in 1980 and 1985, Oxford University named him a Senior Fellow. And in 1985, he
was also a Memorial Fellow of Guggenheim Foundation; The Royal Society of
London honored him as a Fellow (FRS). In 1988, The Royal Society of Edinburgh
honored him as a Fellow (FRSE). In 1994, St. Andrews (Laurinburg, North Carolina)
honored him with Doctor of Science (Sc.D.). In 1996, the British royalty made him a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 1997, he was a Distin-
guished Visiting Fellow of the Japan Society for Advancement of Science. In 1998,
Purdue University awarded him Doctor of Science (D.Sc.), and a year later,
St. Andrews, Doctor of Laws (LLD).
Dr. Arnott’s departure from Purdue University in 1986 coincided with the estab-
lishment of the Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research in the Department of Food
Science. Two scientists from his group—Dr. R.P. Millane and myself—were hired
into faculty positions by the Center’s first director Dr. J.N. BeMiller, while Dr. Arnott
was retained as an Adjunct Professor of the Center. The fiber-diffraction activities
continued in my laboratory and grew with additional focus on delineating the
structure–function relationships of polysaccharides and nucleic acids. The following
years witnessed the birth of the next generation of fiber diffractionists, the appearance
of superfast computers on every desk, and the availability of improved LALS
software on laptops. Thrilled and invigorated by such advancements, Dr. Arnott
himself continued to tackle certain complex structures from the comfort of his own
home. He would often call me for stimulating brainstorming sessions where we
strategized on what to do next. My team has been fortunate to have closely interacted
with him on many occasions. Thanks to the lessons I learned from him, they were
passed on gladly to my group. Fiber diffraction on biomaterials has now risen to the
next level and steered toward exploiting stable networks as vehicles for the delivery of
10 RENGASWAMI CHANDRASEKARAN

bioactive compounds. I view this as my humble tribute to this stalwart fiber diffrac-
tionist of contemporary times.
Dr. Arnott was a stern decision-maker who vehemently defended his viewpoints
with valid reasons. Blessed with old-fashioned kindness and decency, during official
meetings or otherwise, he invariably initiated a conversation in an informal manner,
beginning by asking about the family. He was a patient listener and very generous
man who never hesitated to help when asked. He had an eye for particulars. He
listened to classical music with serious intent. While living in the UK, he and his wife,
Greta, enjoyed watching plays of literary value at London theaters. Reading books on
history, literature, and politics was one of his favorite pastimes. He loved gardening to
ease stress. The Principal, frequently seen out walking—weather permitting—along
the Fife sand dunes armed with binoculars, was a devout ornithologist. Gifted with an
extraordinary memory, he enjoyed discussing what he had read or seen the last month
or even ten years ago with guests at social gatherings. He was eloquent and pleasant
while mingling with the crowd. He returned to St. Andrews in early 2013 to deliver a
lecture on the history of DNA at Arnott Hall, and it is no surprise that this was
delivered magnificently—without notes. The entire audience pounded applause
enthusiastically, the same way it had done when he lectured at the Adam Smith
Institute on Industry Matters almost 25 years earlier!
Dr. Arnott stimulated colleagues and pupils with enthusiasm for his field and
academia in general. With his unfailing impeccable suit and smiling face, he was
always a vivid person blessed with a knack for engaging in intelligent conversations
with peers, students, and children of all ages. The pleasant get-togethers with friends
and colleagues over the years have left indelible impressions and inspirations forever.
Dr. Arnott is survived by his lovely wife, their two sons, and grandchildren. He is
sorely missed.
RENGASWAMI CHANDRASEKARAN

Bibliography

Carbohydrate Articles by Struther Arnott

1. S. Arnott and W. E. Scott, Accurate X-ray diffraction analysis of fibrous polysaccharides containing
pyranose rings. Part 1. The linked-atom approach, J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans. II (1972) 324–335.
2. I. C. M. Dea, R. Moorhouse, D. A. Rees, S. Arnott, J. M. Guss, and E. A. Balazs, Hyaluronic acid:
A novel, double helical molecule, Science, 179 (1973) 560–562.
3. S. Arnott, J. M. Guss, D. W. L. Hukins, and M. B. Mathews, Mucopolysaccharides: Comparison of
chondroitin sulfate conformations with those of related polyanions, Science, 180 (1973) 743–745.
4. S. Arnott, J. M. Guss, and D. W. L. Hukins, Dermatan sulfate and chondroitin 6-sulfate conformations,
Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 54 (1973) 1377–1383.
 OBITUARY - STRUTHER ARNOTT 11

5. S. Arnott, D. W. L. Hukins, R. L. Whistler, and C. W. Baker, Molecular conformation in gels of

cellulose sulfate, Carbohydr. Res., 35 (1974) 259–263.
6. S. Arnott, J. M. Guss, D. W. L. Hukins, I. C. M. Dea, and D. A. Rees, Conformation of keratan sulfate:
A study of stereochemical relationships within the glycosaminoglycan family, J. Mol. Biol., 88 (1974)
175–184.
7. S. Arnott, W. E. Scott, D. A. Rees, and G. G. A. McNab, Iota-carrageenan: Molecular structure and
packing of polysaccharide double helices in oriented fibres of divalent cation salts, J. Mol. Biol., 90
(1974) 253–267.
8. S. Arnott, A. Fulmer, W. E. Scott, I. C. M. Dea, R. Moorhouse, and D. A. Rees, The agarose double
helix and its function in agarose gel structure, J. Mol. Biol., 90 (1974) 269–284.
9. S. Arnott, J. M. Guss, and W. T. Winter, Glycosaminoglycan conformations, in H. C. Slavkin and
R. C. Greulich, (Eds.), Proceedings of the Second Santa Catalina Island International Symposium on
the Influences of the Extracellular Matrix on Gene Expression, Academic Press, New York, 1975,
pp. 399–407.
10. J. M. Guss, D. W. L. Hukins, P. J. C. Smith, W. T. Winter, S. Arnott, R. Moorhouse, and D. A. Rees,
Hyaluronic acid: Molecular conformations and interactions in two sodium salts, J. Mol. Biol., 95 (1975)
359–384.
11. W. T. Winter, P. J. C. Smith, and S. Arnott, Hyaluronic acid: Structure of a fully extended 3-fold helical
sodium salt and comparison with the less extended 4-fold helical forms, J. Mol. Biol., 99 (1975)
219–235.
12. W. T. Winter, J. J. Cael, P. J. C. Smith, and S. Arnott, Hyaluronic acid conformations and interactions,
in J. C. Arthur, Jr., (Ed.), Cellulose Chemistry and Technology, ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 48, 1977,
pp. 91–104.
13. R. Moorhouse, M. D. Walkinshaw, W. T. Winter, and S. Arnott, Solid state conformations and
interactions of some branched microbial polysaccharides, in J. C. Arthur, Jr., (Ed.), Cellulose Chemistry
and Technology, ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 48, 1977, pp. 133–152.
14. W. T. Winter and S. Arnott, Hyaluronic acid: The role of divalent cations in conformation and packing,
J. Mol. Biol., 117 (1977) 761–784.
15. R. Moorhouse, W. T. Winter, S. Arnott, and M. E. Bayer, Conformation and molecular organization in
fibers of the capsular polysaccharide from an Escherichia coli M41 mutant, J. Mol. Biol., 109 (1977)
373–391.
16. R. Moorhouse, M. D. Walkinshaw, and S. Arnott, Xanthan gum—Molecular conformation and
interactions, in P. A. Sandford and A. Laskin, (Eds.), Extracellular Microbial Polysaccharides, ACS
Symposium Series, Vol. 45, 1977, pp. 90–102.
17. S. Arnott, Ordered conformations of gel-forming polysaccharides obtained by X-ray diffraction
analysis of oriented fibres, in G. G. Birch and R. S. Shallenberger, (Eds.), Developments in Food
Carbohydrates, Applied Science Publ., Ltd., Barking, England, 1977, pp. 43–60.
18. S. Arnott and W. T. Winter, Details of glycosaminoglycan conformations and intermolecular interac-
tions, Federation Proc., 36 (1977) 73–78.
19. W. T. Winter, S. Arnott, D. H. Isaac, and E. D. T. Atkins, Chondroitin 4-sulfate: The structure of a
sulfated glycosaminoglycan, J. Mol. Biol., 125 (1978) 1–10.
20. J. J. Cael, W. T. Winter, and S. Arnott, Calcium chondroitin 4-sulfate: Molecular conformation and
organization of polysaccharide chains in a proteoglycan, J. Mol. Biol., 125 (1978) 21–42.
21. W. T. Winter and S. Arnott, Secondary and tertiary structure of glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans,
in J. D. Gregory and R. W. Jeanloz, (Eds.), Glycoconjugate Research: Proceedings of the 4th
International Symposium on Glycoconjugates, Vol. I, Academic Press, New York, 1979, pp. 321–323.
22. K. Okuyama, S. Arnott, R. Moorhouse, M. D. Walkinshaw, E. D. T. Atkins, and C. Wolf-Ullish, Fiber
diffraction studies of bacterial polysaccharides, in A. D. French and K. H. Gardner, (Eds.), Fiber
Diffraction Methods, ACS Symposium Series, Vol. 141, 1980, pp. 411–427.
12 RENGASWAMI CHANDRASEKARAN

23. M. D. Walkinshaw and S. Arnott, Conformations and interactions of pectins. I: X-ray diffraction analyses
of sodium pectate in neutral and acidified forms, J. Mol. Biol., 153 (1981) 1055–1073.
24. M. D. Walkinshaw and S. Arnott, Conformations and interactions of pectins. II: Packing of pectinic
acid and calcium pectate as models for junction zones in gels, J. Mol. Biol., 153 (1981) 1075–1085.
25. S. Arnott, D. A. Rees, and E. R. Morris, (Eds.), Molecular Biophysics of the Extracellular Matrix,
Humana Press, New Jersey, 1984, pp. 1–189.
26. S. Arnott and A. K. Mitra, X-ray diffraction analyses of glycosaminoglycans, in S. Arnott,
D. A. Rees, and E. R. Morris, (Eds.), Molecular Biophysics of the Extracellular Matrix, Humana
Press, New Jersey, 1984, pp. 41–67.
27. A. K. Mitra, S. Arnott, and J. K. Sheehan, Hyaluronic acid: Molecular conformation and interactions in
the tetragonal form of the potassium salt containing extended chains, J. Mol. Biol., 169 (1983) 813–827.
28. A. K. Mitra, S. Raghunathan, J. K. Sheehan, and S. Arnott, Hyaluronic acid: Molecular conformations
and interactions in the orthorhombic and tetragonal forms containing sinuous chains, J. Mol. Biol., 169
(1983) 829–859.
29. S. Arnott, A. K. Mitra, and S. Raghunathan, The hyaluronic acid double helix, J. Mol. Biol., 169 (1983)
861–872.
30. A. K. Mitra, S. Arnott, E. D. T. Atkins, and D. H. Isaac, Dermatan sulfate: Molecular conformations and
interactions in the condensed state, J. Mol. Biol., 169 (1983) 873–901.
31. R. P. Millane, A. K. Mitra, and S. Arnott, Chondroitin-4-sulfate: Comparison of the structures of the
potassium and sodium salts, J. Mol. Biol., 169 (1983) 903–920.
32. A. K. Mitra, R. P. Millane, S. Raghunathan, J. K. Sheehan, and S. Arnott, Comparison of glycosami-
noglycan structures induced by different monovalent cations as determined by X-ray fiber diffraction,
J. Macromol. Sci. Phys., B24, ( (1985) 21–38.
33. R. Chandrasekaran, R. P. Millane, J. K. Walker, S. Arnott, and I. C. M. Dea, The molecular structure of
the capsular polysaccharide from Rhizobium trifolii, in V. Crescenzi, I. C. M. Dea, and S. S. Stivala,
(Eds.), Recent Developments in Industrial Polysaccharides, Gordon and Breach, New York, USA,
1987, pp. 111–118.
34. R. Chandrasekaran, R. P. Millane, S. Arnott, and E. D. T. Atkins, The crystal structure of gellan,
Carbohydr. Res., 175 (1988) 1–15.
35. R. P. Millane, R. Chandrasekaran, S. Arnott, and I. C. M. Dea, The molecular structure of kappa-
carrageenan and comparison with iota-carrageenan, Carbohydr. Res., 182 (1988) 1–17.
36. R. Chandrasekaran, R. P. Millane, and S. Arnott, Molecular structures of gellan and other industrially
important gel-forming polysaccharides, in G. O. Phillips, D. J. Wedlock, and P. A. Williams, (Eds.),
Gums and Stabilisers for the Food Industry 4, IRL Press, Oxford, UK, 1988, pp. 183–191.
37. R. Chandrasekaran, L. C. Puigjaner, K. L. Joyce, and S. Arnott, Cation interactions in gellan: An X-ray
study of the potassium salt, Carbohydr. Res., 181 (1988) 23–40.
38. R. P. Millane, T. V. Narasaiah, and S. Arnott, Molecular structures of xanthan and genetically
engineered xanthan variants with truncated side chains, in V. Crescenzi, I. C. M. Dea, and S. Paoletti,
(Eds.), Biomedical and Biotechnological Advances in Industrial Polysaccharides, Gordon and Breach,
New York, USA, 1989, pp. 469–478.
39. R. P. Millane, E. U. Nzewi, and S. Arnott, Molecular structures of carrageenans determined by X-ray
fiber diffraction, in R. P. Millane, J. N. BeMiller, and R. Chandrasekaran, (Eds.), Frontiers in
Carbohydrate Research-1: Food Applications, Elsevier, London, 1989, pp. 104–131.
40. R. P. Millane and S. Arnott, Ordered water in hydrated solid state polysaccharide systems, in
H. Levine and L. Slade, (Eds.), Water Relationships in Foods: Advances in the 1980s and Trends for
the 1990s, Advances in Experimental Biology and Medicine, Vol. 302, Plenum Press, New York, USA,
1991, pp. 785–803.
41. S. Arnott, W. Bian, R. Chandrasekaran, and B. R. Manis, Lessons for today and tomorrow from
yesterday—The structure of alginic acid, Fiber Diffract. Rev., 9 (2000) 44–51.
 ADVANCES IN CARBOHYDRATE CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY, VOL. 70

SEVEN DECADES OF “ADVANCES”

Derek Horton

Department of Chemistry, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Department of Chemistry, American University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

I. Introduction and Background 13

1. The Launching of Advances and Its Policies 13
2. Carbohydrate Nomenclature and Indexing 14
3. Carbohydrate Reference Books 16
4. Founding of the Journal Carbohydrate Research 17
II. Editors’ Prefaces for Volumes 1–70 of Advances 18
III. Concluding Remarks 207
References 208

I. Introduction and Background

1. The Launching of Advances and Its Policies

This annual book series had its start during World War II when Walter J. Johnson
and Kurt Jacoby, immigrants from Germany fleeing Nazi persecution, founded in
1942 the publishing house Academic Press, with its headquarters in New York City.
Johnson was the business manager of the company while his brother-in-law Jacoby, a
scholarly academic who had great editorial acumen, was able to pass along a spirit of
intellectual participation upon which fruitful relationships between publishers and
scientists rested.1 Jacoby was an extraordinarily energetic editor, projecting both
intelligence and zeal. He established close personal contacts in establishing new
publishing ventures with such leading scientists as Joshua Lederburg, Hans Neurath,
Linus Pauling, J. T. Edsall, Melville L. Wolfrom, W. Ward Pigman, and Sir John
Kendrew, setting a standard for scientific excellence coupled with an indifference to

ISBN: 978-0-12-408092-8
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-408092-8.00003-3. 13 # 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
14 D. HORTON

short-term financial considerations. He died in 1968 at the age of 75 and was

succeeded by Dr. James Barsky, a knowledgeable scientist who sustained Jacoby’s
commitment to scientific excellence. He served as President of Academic Press
between 1978 and 1987. The company had in the meantime been acquired in 1969
by Harcourt Brace Publishers, and in the year 2000 Academic Press became an
imprint of Elsevier.
In consultation with Wolfrom and Pigman soon after the founding of Academic
Press, a plan was set up for a series of books to appear annually, featuring invited
contributions covering a range of topics in the carbohydrate field. With a group of
advisors comprising William Lloyd Evans, Hermann O. L. Fischer (son of Emil
Fischer), R. Max Goepp, Sir Norman Haworth, and Claude S. Hudson, the first
volume of Advances was launched, with Pigman and Wolfrom as the editors.
A group of twelve contributing authors provided articles on a diversity of carbohy-
drate topics, with a notable first one from Claude S. Hudson on the Fischer cyanohy-
drin synthesis and one from Thomas J. Schoch that clearly demonstrated that starch is
in fact a mixture of two different polysaccharides, one termed by Schoch as the
A-fraction (nowadays amylose) and another the B-fraction (now amylopectin).
Difficulties in communication during the Second World War delayed the solicitation
of manuscripts and in the production of the book, and the first volume appeared in 1945.
In their Preface to that volume, Pigman and Wolfrom spelled out the basic policies and
objectives of Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry, with its scope intended to cover the
simple sugars, glycosides, and polysaccharides, along with biochemical, industrial, and
analytical aspects. Contributions were expected to be critical and integrating treatments
of the particular field, and not mere literature reviews. For mature areas, the expectation
was a definitive treatment with great historical accuracy to serve as a permanent record.
For fields undergoing rapid development, the objective was to solicit a number of
contributions reflecting different viewpoints.
In all instances the editors insisted that contributions be written in concise, gram-
matically correct English, in a style readily comprehensible by the average chemist or
biochemist, and not just the specialist. Simple direct sentences, avoidance of jargon,
and definition of specialized terms were expected, especially for the benefit of those
readers not having English as their mother language.

2. Carbohydrate Nomenclature and Indexing

At the outset of the series there was considerable confusion in the literature
concerning the naming of sugars and their derivatives, as they were outside the
 SEVEN DECADES OF “ADVANCES” 15

scope of the 1892 “Geneva” system for naming organic compounds based on parent
alkane names, functional groups, and substituent groups. A multiplicity of trivial
names for simple sugars, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides abounded in the
literature, with names often coined arbitrarily based on the source of the carbohydrate.
There were many redundant names for the same compound. Semisystematic names
based on modifiers to the trivial name were used inconsistently, and there were major
differences even between the names for the same compound in the German, French,
and English languages. Up to the 1940s, nomenclature proposals had been made by
individuals; some of these were adopted in the scientific community, but others
were not.
The International Union of Chemistry developed and expanded the Geneva
nomenclature for organic compounds, but made little progress with the nomenclature
of carbohydrates. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)
Commission on Nomenclature of Biological Chemistry put forward a classification
scheme for carbohydrates, but the new terms then proposed have not survived. How-
ever, in 1939, the American Chemical Society (ACS) formed a committee to look into
this matter, since rapid progress in the field had led to various misnomers arising from
the lack of guidelines.2 This committee set out the foundations of modern systematic
nomenclature for carbohydrates and derivatives: the numbering of the sugar chain, the
use of D and L and a and b, and the designation of stereochemistry by italicized prefixes,
with multiple prefixes for longer chains. The final report, prepared by M. L. Wolfrom,
was approved by the ACS Council and published3 in 1948.
The early volumes of Advances benefited greatly from the fact that Chemical
Abstracts, a division of the American Chemical Society charged with abstracting
and indexing the world’s chemical literature, had its editorial offices on the campus of
Ohio State University. These were directly proximal to the Ohio State Chemistry
Department where Melville L. Wolfrom (and later Horton) had their laboratories.
Chemical literature from all over the world was collected in abstract form in the
volumes of CA by a large team of volunteer abstractors, and the content in various
subject areas was coordinated by Section Editors, while the in-house staff and
professional indexers produced the published volumes and indexes. The use of
volunteer abstractors was finally phased out in 1994.
Dr. Leonard T. Capell, the Nomenclature Director and Executive Consultant at
Chemical Abstracts, had overall responsibility for application of acceptable nomencla-
ture standards in the CA indexes. He provided a most valuable service in compiling the
indexes of many of the volumes of Advances, and in being conveniently accessible to
Wolfrom (and later to this writer) for consultation on nomenclature matters, up until his
retirement in 1964 and the move of the Chemical Abstract Service operation to a large
16 D. HORTON

complex to the north of the Ohio State campus. Dr. Capell compiled the index to the
first volume of Advances, and most of the subsequent indexes up to Volume 61 in 1983.
His contribution brought the high standard set for the Chemical Abstracts indexes and
reflects the best usage of the day in the nomenclature of carbohydrates.
Not all problems were solved with the 1948 nomenclature document,3 and different
usages were encountered on the two sides of the Atlantic. The work of a joint
British–American committee was published4 in 1953 as “Rules for Carbohydrate
Nomenclature,” and a revised version was published in 1963 with endorsement by
the ACS and by the Chemical Society in Britain.5 The publication of this report led the
IUPAC Commission on Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, jointly with the
IUPAC–IUB Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature, to issue, with broader
international input, the “Tentative Rules for Carbohydrate Nomenclature, Part I,
1969,” published in1971/72 in several journals and later referred to as 1-Carb.6
However, this document still did not reconcile various alternatives, especially con-
cerning the stereodesignators for deoxy sugars and dicarbonyl sugars.
A large international group with 52 members, under the auspices of IUPAC–
IUBMB, subsequently developed a comprehensive document, Nomenclature of
Carbohydrates, Recommendations 1996 (2-Carb), published in 1996, which recon-
ciles earlier differences and has remained the basis for current usage.7 In addition to
basic definitions for sugars, glycosides, polysaccharides, and glycoconjugates, it
includes recommendations for naming unsaturated sugars, branched-chain sugars,
conformations of cyclic sugars, and polysaccharides, together with recommendations
for naming a wide range of structurally modified carbohydrate derivatives. Also
included are tabulations of trivial names for sugars and their systematic equivalents,
and recommendations for the representation of sugar chains employing three-letter
abbreviations for the monosaccharides. That document was also published in Volume
52 of Advances, and a version published on the World Wide Web has been routinely
kept up to date with minor corrections.8
A short document Nomenclature of Glycolipids, Recommendations 1997, addressing
specific questions in naming glycolipids, was developed by an IUPAC–IUBMB panel.9
This document was also published in Volume 55 of Advances and also as a Web version.9

3. Carbohydrate Reference Books

Parallel with the Advances series, Ward Pigman, together with R. Max Goepp,
planned a comprehensive monograph of the entire area of carbohydrate chemistry,
Chemistry of Carbohydrates, which was published in 1948 by Academic Press.10
 SEVEN DECADES OF “ADVANCES” 17

Pigman prepared an expanded and updated version, The Carbohydrates, Chemistry,

Biochemistry, and Physiology, that was published in 1957, again under the Academic
Press imprint.11 Finally, a four-volume revision, The Carbohydrates, Chemistry and
Biochemistry, Second Edition,12 under the editorship of Pigman and Horton, and
published again by Academic Press, appeared in 1970. Although now outdated,
these volumes still contain important material on carbohydrates of permanent refer-
ence value. Also under the Academic Press imprint are the valuable eight-volume
Methods in Carbohydrate Chemistry series founded by R. L. Whistler and M. L.
Wolfrom,13 and Aspinall’s three-volume series The Polysaccharides.14
This author has provided a brief and selective overview of carbohydrate chemistry
and biology, from antiquity to the present, citing seminal work of major pioneers
along with key review articles of later developments.15 Large compendia detailing
much information on carbohydrates include the 1999 volume in the series Compre-
hensive Natural Product Chemistry16 and the 2005 edition of Polysaccharides:
Structural Diversity and Functional Versatility.17 The 2008 volume Glycoscience:
Chemistry and Chemical Biology18 coordinates wide-ranging results on chemical and
enzymatic approaches to synthesis, and the four-volume set Comprehensive
Glycoscience,19 published in 2007, is focused especially on biological aspects.
The Dictionary of Carbohydrates20 lists some 24,000 individual carbohydrates,
giving names, structures, sources, data, and literature references for each, together
with a complementary electronic database. Another valuable reference work, which
includes a wealth of information on carbohydrate derivatives important in biochem-
istry and biology, is the Oxford Dictionary of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.21
Among the smaller single-author books on carbohydrates suitable for use as course
texts may be noted Guthrie and Honeyman’s Introduction to Carbohydrate
Chemistry,22 the Collins–Ferrier book Monosaccharide Chemistry,23 and Stick’s
Carbohydrates: The Essential Molecules of Life,24 which includes a brief treatment
of biological aspects. Lehmann’s book Carbohydrates: Structure and Biology25 has
the biological and biochemical aspects of carbohydrates as its central focus and is
particularly useful for gaining a broad overview of the subject.

4. Founding of the Journal Carbohydrate Research

Twenty years after the launching of Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry,

Dr. Marc Atkins of the Elsevier Publishing Company approached Professor Allan
B. Foster, of the University of London, with a view to setting up a new research
journal devoted to all aspects of carbohydrates. Foster, my doctoral preceptor at the
18 D. HORTON

University of Birmingham, invited me (by then a junior faculty member at Ohio State
University) to join with him in this endeavor, and together with R. Stuart Tipson of the
US National Bureau of Standards, Roger Jeanloz of Harvard University, and John
Webber of Birmingham University, the new journal Carbohydrate Research came
into being under the joint editorship of these five founding editors. That journal has
burgeoned in size and scope during subsequent years and continues to flourish, with
periodic changes in the editor lineup26 up to the present day.
Taken together, the research journal Carbohydrate Research, the annual Advances
series, and such monographs as the Pigman–Horton volumes and other books on
carbohydrates, notably the Methods in Carbohydrate Chemistry series12 founded by
Roy L. Whistler and Melville L. Wolfrom, constitute a rich store of knowledge in the
carbohydrate field, both for new advances and as a reference source for work in
mature fields. A particularly important feature of this resource comes from the
initiative of the Academic Press publishers, and later of Elsevier, to make full-text
electronic access possible for the entire Advances series, and also for all articles in
Carbohydrate Research.
The compilation that follows is based on a chronological collection of the Editor
Prefaces of Volumes 1–69 of Advances. These prefaces record the evolution of the
carbohydrate field over a period of seventy years, in its multifaceted manifestations of
discovery and application. They also recount the knowledge and views of its major
practitioners in their roles as contributing authors and provide a retrospect on their life
stories as these leaders pass into history. For the benefit of today’s and future readers,
portraits of those carbohydrate scientists who built today’s understanding of the field
are included.
The first few Editor Prefaces provide no detail on the subject material of the
respective volumes, and for these, there is included such information. From Volume
9 and later, the Prefaces feature the individual topics and their authors. It is hoped that
this compilation will facilitate browsing of this rich archive of knowledge on carbo-
hydrates in its many manifestations.

II. Editors’ Prefaces for Volumes 1–70 of ADVANCES

1. Volume 1

Editors’ Preface.—The increasing tempo of research and the consequent

increased specialization of research workers make it desirable to provide frequent
reviews of important developments in carbohydrate chemistry, not only for
 SEVEN DECADES OF “ADVANCES” 19

carbohydrate chemists, but also for research workers in other fields, and industrial
chemists and teachers. With this book there is begun the publication of a series of
annual volumes entitled “Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry.” For each
volume, invitations will be extended to selected research workers to prepare critical
reviews of special topics in the broad field of the carbohydrates, including the
sugars, polysaccharides, and glycosides. It is also the intention to cover, as far as
the available space will permit, biochemical, industrial, and analytical developments.
It is our plan to have the individual contributors furnish critical, integrating reviews
rather than mere literature surveys and to have the articles presented in such a form as
to be intelligible to the average chemist rather than only to the specialist.
Although the usual rules of the assignment of proper credit for developments will be
followed, we do not believe it necessary to quote all past work done in a particular field
and the contributions of a particular laboratory or group may be emphasized.
It may be found desirable to present several reviews of controversial
subjects, particularly of those in fields undergoing a rapid state of development. In
this way, different points of view will find expression. In addition to the presentation
of topics covering recent advances, we are providing occasional articles which will
review thoroughly special fundamental topics in carbohydrate chemistry. These
articles will cover fields which have matured and will be quite complete from the
historical standpoint. After a number of years, it is hoped that the aggregate of these
articles will provide a fairly complete summary of carbohydrate researches.
The general policies of the “Advances” have been formulated by an Executive
Committee consisting of W. L. Evans, H. O. L. Fischer, R. Max Goepp, Jr., W. N.
Haworth, C. S. Hudson, and the two editors. It is a pleasure to announce that, beginning
with the second volume, Dr. Stanley Peat of Birmingham University, England, will act
as Associate Editor to solicit and edit contributions from the British Isles. It seems
probable that an enlargement of the organization may be expected in the future.
Because the present volume is the first to be presented, we trust that the readers will
not be too critical and will remember that the attainment of uniformity and the
establishment of permanent policies will require some time and much consideration.
The present international conflict has made the solicitation of manuscripts difficult
and has provided many other difficulties. The cooperation shown by the contributors
to the first volume is greatly appreciated.
We hope that the “Advances” will receive the wholehearted support of carbohy-
drate chemists in particular and of the chemical profession as a whole. Such support is
necessary for the successful continuation of our work. We would be very glad to
receive suggestions from the readers, of better ways in which we can serve the needs
of carbohydrate chemists and of fields in need of review.
20 D. HORTON

The support and encouragement given by the publishers in this undertaking are
gratefully acknowledged. The index has been compiled by Dr. L. T. Capell. Mr. J. V.
Karabinos has rendered valuable editorial assistance.

THE EDITORS
Chicago, Illinois W. W. Pigman
Columbus, Ohio M. L. Wolfrom

The contributions to Volume 1 include an opening article from C. S. Hudson on the

Fischer cyanohydrin synthesis, and others from Richtmyer (altrose), carbohydrate
orthoesters (Pacsu), thio and seleno sugars (Raymond), carbohydrates of the cardiac
glycosides (Elderfield), alditol metabolism (Carr and Krantz), nucleic acids (Tipson),
the fractionation of starch (Schoch), starch esters (Whistler), cellulose esters
(Fordyce), and plant “polyuronides” (Anderson and Sands).

2. Volume 2

Editors’ Preface.—The first volume of this series was published during the war
and contained chapters written only by American authors. In this second volume, we
are especially pleased to be able to present several articles from the English school of
carbohydrate chemists and one from France, thus making the “Advances” interna-
tional in scope. Dr. Stanley Peat of Birmingham University, England, has been of
great help in making arrangements for these and future articles. As communications
between countries become facilitated, we hope to increase the number of countries
that the participating authors represent.
We wish again to extend a cordial invitation to carbohydrate chemists to suggest
topics in need of review and to suggest any way in which our contributions to the field
of carbohydrates may be improved.
Dr. L. T. Capell has again compiled the subject index. The editorial assistance rendered
by Edgar E. Dickey and Mary Grace Blair has been greatly appreciated. Dr. Claude S.
Hudson has given invaluable aid in the editing of this and the preceding volume.
The journal abbreviations used are those employed by Chemical Abstracts. Unless
otherwise noted, all temperature values are expressed in centigrade units.

THE EDITORS
Appleton, Wisconsin W. W. Pigman
Columbus, Ohio M. L. Wolfrom
 SEVEN DECADES OF “ADVANCES” 21

Volume 2 opens with an article by C. S. Hudson on melezitose and turanose,

followed by a report from Peat on anhydro sugars. Additional reports include ascorbic
acid analogues (F. Smith), hexitol synthesis (Lespieau), carbohydrate and fat metab-
olism (Deuel and Morehouse), “mucopolysaccharides” (Stacey), bacterial polysac-
charides (T. H. Evans and H. Hibbert), pectic materials (Hirst and Jones), difructose
anhydrides (E. J. McDonald), and cellulose ethers (Haskins).

3. Volume 3

Editors’ Preface.—In presenting this third volume in the annual series of

Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry, the editors are pleased that the international
scope of their endeavor has been further increased, the present volume containing
contributions from England, Scotland, Sweden, and Germany in addition to those
from the United States. It is a matter of satisfaction to note that Volume 1 has gone
into its second printing. The editors have endeavored to maintain this publication on a
high scholarly level and they thank the contributors for their full cooperation in this
effort.
Our executive committee has lost the services of Dr. R. Max Goepp, Jr., by his
tragic and untimely death in an airplane accident. His enthusiastic support will be
greatly missed. We are proud to welcome as new members of the executive commit-
tee: Professor E. L. Hirst, of the University of Edinburgh; Dr. R. C. Hockett, scientific
director of the Sugar Research Foundation, New York; and Professor C. B. Purves, of
McGill University.
Dr. Stanley Peat, of the University of Birmingham, has continued to render
assistance as associate editor for the British Isles. Dr. C. S. Hudson has again very
materially assisted in the editing of this volume. The subject index has been compiled
by Dr. L. T. Capell. Valuable editorial assistance has been rendered by Mr. Donald O.
Hoffman.

THE EDITORS
Appleton, Wisconsin W.W. Pigman
Columbus, Ohio M. L. Wolfrom

Once more C. S. Hudson is the opening contributor to this volume, writing on the
history of Fischer’s stereo-formulas, followed by Percival discussing sugar hydra-
zones and osazones, Fletcher dealing with cyclitols, and Helferich reporting on trityl
ethers. Other articles included constituents of cane molasses (Sattler), oxidation of
22 D. HORTON

sugars by halogen (Green), constitution of cellulose (Compton), isotopic tracers in

carbohydrate metabolism (S. Gurin), enzymatic degradation of starch and glycogen
(Myrbäck), mycobacterial polysaccharides (Stacey and Kent), and an article by
Lemieux and Wolfrom on the chemistry of streptomycin.
This last article was of great interest to a young chemistry student at Birmingham
University named Derek Horton (this writer); it stimulated a life-long interest in
amino sugars and later led to his moving to Columbus, Ohio to work with Wolfrom
and subsequently to build a research career at Ohio State University.

4. Volume 4

Contributing Authors.—This volume, appearing in 1949 and edited by

Ward Pigman and Melville Wolfrom, did not have an Editor’s Preface, but gave
the names and addresses of the contributors. The titles of their contributions are
included here.

J. Böeseken, The University, Delft, Holland. The Use of Boric Acid for the
Determination of the Configuration of Carbohydrates.
H. G. Bray and M. Stacey, University of Birmingham, England. Blood Group
Polysaccharides.
Venancio Deulofeu, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas y Naturales, Buenos
Aires.. Argentina. The Acylated Nitriles of Aldonic Acids and Their Degradation.
R. Lohmar , Northern Regional Research Laboratory, U. S. Department of
Agriculture, Peoria, Illinois and R. M. Goepp, Jr. (deceased October 1946), Atlas
Powder Company, Wilmington, Delaware. The Hexitols and Some of Their
Derivatives.
E. E. Harris, Forest Products Laboratory, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Madison,
Wisconsin. Wood Saccharification.
C. S. Hudson, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Apiose and the
Glycosides of the Parsley Plant.
J. K. N. Jones, University of Manchester, England, and F. Smith, University of
Birmingham, England. Plant Gums and Mucilages.
I. Levi, Charles E. Frosst and Company, Montreal, Canada, and C. B. Purves, McGill
University, Montreal, Canada. The Structure and Configuration of Sucrose (a-D-
Glucopyranosyl-b-D-fructofuranoside).
Carl Neuberg, Department of Chemistry, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York.
Biochemical Reductions at the Expense of Sugars.
L. F. Wiggins, University of Birmingham, England. The Utilization of Sucrose.
 SEVEN DECADES OF “ADVANCES” 23

5. Volume 5

Editors’ Preface.—The editors of Volume V wish to express their appreciation of

the excellent service that has been rendered by Professor W. W. Pigman and Professor
M. L. Wolfrom in the editing of the earlier volumes of this series. They have
generously consented to assist in the publication of later volumes in the capacity of
members of a “Board of Advisors,” which now takes the place of the “Executive
Committee” of the earlier volumes.
During the past year, we have suffered a great loss through the death of Sir Walter
Norman Haworth. His assistance was invaluable in the organization of the group that
initiated the publication of the Advances and he gave much of his time to the details of
the solicitation of articles during the remaining years of his life. We pay homage to the
memory of this great man and genial friend.
The editorial policy of the publication will continue in its past form. To quote from
Volume I: “It is our plan to have the individual contributors furnish critical, integrat-
ing reviews rather than mere literature surveys, and to have the articles presented in
such a form as to be intelligible to the average chemist rather than only to the
specialist.” Invitations will be extended to selected research workers to prepare
critical reviews of special topics in the broad field of the carbohydrates, including
the sugars, polysaccharides, and glycosides. It is also the intention to include bio-
chemical and analytical developments in the carbohydrate field as well as critical
reviews of important industrial advances.
Criticisms and suggestions of any kind are respectfully solicited.

THE EDITORS
Bethesda, Maryland C. S. Hudson
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania S. M. Cantor

Subjects in Volume 5 include desulfurization by Raney nickel (Fletcher and

Richtmyer), enzymatic synthesis of sucrose (Hassid and Doudoroff ), principles
underlying enzyme specificity (Gottschalk), enzymes acting on pectic substances
(Kertez and McColloch), crystallinity of cellulose (Nickerson), commercial produc-
tion of dextrose (Dean and Gottfried), the methyl ethers of D-glucose (Bourne and
Peat), anhydrides of the pentitols and hexitols (Wiggins), action of alpha amylases
(Caldwell and Adams), and xylan (Whistler).
24 D. HORTON

6. Volume 6

Editors’ Preface.—We regret to report the death of our esteemed collaborator,

Dr. Edmund George Vincent Percival, Reader in Chemistry, the University of
Edinburgh, Scotland, on September 27th, 1951, at the age of forty-four. The impor-
tance of his contributions to the progress of carbohydrate research is universally
recognized; his ability in teaching and his friendliness endeared him to a wide circle
of students and colleagues, who mourn his passing. His aid to this publication, both as
a contributor and as a member of its Board of Advisors, is here recorded with deepest
appreciation.
In addition to the usual author and subject indexes for volume 6, there is included
also a cumulative subject index for the preceding five volumes. This cumulative index
is offered particularly to research workers as an aid in tracing matters back to the
original publications in specialized journals.
We are pleased to announce that Dr. M. L. Wolfrom will rejoin the editorial staff,
beginning with volume 7.

THE EDITORS
Bethesda, Maryland C. S. Hudson
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania S. M. Cantor

Subjects in Volume 6 include the methyl ethers of D-galactose (D. J. Bell),

oligosaccharide synthesis (Evans, Reynolds, and Talley), formation of furan
compounds from hexoses (Newth), cuprammonium glycoside complexes (Reeves),
the chemistry of ribose (Jeanloz and Fletcher), the 2-aldopolyhydroxyalkyl)
benzimidazoles (Richtmyer), granular adsorbents for sugar refining (Barrett), acoritic
acid as a byproduct of sugar manufacture (Miller and Cantor), Friedel–Crafts and
Grignard processes in carbohydrates (Bonner), and the nitromethane and
2-nitroethanol syntheses (Sowden).
Appearing for the first time in Advances is an obituary article, written by E. L.
Hirst, which commemorates the life and career of Sir Norman Haworth. In later
volumes in the series, such articles have continued to feature the lives of prominent
researchers in the carbohydrate field, especially those who had made notable contri-
butions to Advances.
 SEVEN DECADES OF “ADVANCES” 25

Sir (Walter) Norman Haworth

Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
manière dont il restait tassé sur sa chaise. Et, dans ses yeux aigus, tour à
tour fixés sur ceux qui parlaient, luisait l’âpre curiosité paysanne intéressée.
Pourtant, sur l’ordre de Berthe, il dut aller chercher du cidre au cellier
contigu, mais il fut si vite de retour qu’elle n’eut pas le temps d’amorcer la
conversation qu’elle désirait.
Enfin, M. Froment se leva pour partir. Il alla à Berthe et lui tendit la
main:
—Merci, mademoiselle, dit-il, de cette excellente journée.
Il appuya sur l’adjectif.
Il se tourna vers le gars et le salua avec une politesse distante:
—Au revoir, monsieur.
Puis, la voix haute et claire:
—Venez-vous me conduire, Fanny?
Pour les deux qui restaient ce fut inattendu comme un mauvais rêve. Les
fiancés étaient dehors qu’ils n’arrivaient pas à se rendre compte des paroles
étonnantes et du coup d’audace qui les suivait.
Cependant, le couple s’éloignait dans la grande lumière dorée de l’après-
midi. Silas n’avait pas osé offrir son bras comme il y songeait. Ils
marchaient côte à côte, proches et, pourtant, séparés par l’éclat nouveau de
ce coup d’Etat. Et il leur semblait qu’ils n’avaient plus rien à se dire.
Ils allèrent ainsi jusqu’à la barrière. Silas l’ouvrit, et ils furent sur la
route blanche du plateau que l’instituteur allait suivre pour gagner
Beuzeboc au plus court.
On aurait dit qu’une impossibilité physique les empêchait de parler l’un
et l’autre. Enfin, Silas commença d’une façon incohérente qui n’était pas la
sienne:
—Il ne sait pas.
Et Fanny, sans hésiter, elle qui hésitait toujours, répondit:
—Ah! il ne sait pas?
Ils marchèrent encore quelques pas, puis elle reprit:
—Mais ce n’est pas possible!
Silas dit sans la regarder:
—C’est que vous avez l’air si jeune!
—Oh! répéta-t-elle, c’est pas possible.
 Ils traversaient la longue rue du village. Leur conversation pouvait être
épiée; elle l’était: ils connaissaient trop les us des campagnes pour n’en être
pas certains. Fanny continua, l’air indifférent:
—Il ne se doute pas, vous êtes sûr?
M. Froment affirma:
—Non. Il pencherait plutôt de l’autre côté.
—Berthe?
—Oui, affirma-t-il. Par moments, on dirait qu’il croit que c’est elle.
Elle ne répondit pas à cela. Elle venait de songer à ce premier jour où sa
sœur était allée comme une Furie vers le soldat planté au bas du pré, et à ce
qu’elle avait pu lui dire et dont elle ne lui avait jamais parlé, à elle, à cet air
adouci qui paraissait parfois sur sa figure.
Sa mère? Non, non, même pour tout savoir, jamais Berthe n’aurait
consenti à lui faire supposer cela. Elle se perdait dans ses pensées confuses.
Et ce fut Silas qui reprit:
—Je l’ai questionné doucement, mais de façon à ce qu’il comprenne que
vous m’aviez tout dit. Il n’est pas sot. Il a compris.
—N’est-ce pas? dit Fanny, avec une lueur de joie.
—C’était difficile à expliquer. Cela s’est fait à demi-mot et très
rapidement. «Mon ami, lui ai-je dit, je suis ici pour aider ces dames. Vous
tombez dans leur vie sans crier gare.»
«Il m’a répondu: «Oui, je sais bien, mais, moi aussi, j’en ai une situation
qui n’est pas drôle. (Il a dit: «qu’est rêvable.») Que celle qui me doit
quelque chose vienne m’établir. J’ai l’âge.»
—Il a dit ça?
—A peu près, c’est le sens.
Elle répéta:
—«Qu’elle vienne m’établir...»
—Oui. Et il le pense. Je crois qu’on ne gagnera rien à ruser, à temporiser
avec une nature comme celle-là; c’est un roc.
Elle pensa: «Comme maman.» Et, tout haut, elle dit:
—Alors?
—Et c’est tout. Aucun nom n’a été prononcé, c’est à des indices que j’ai
vu qu’il croyait que c’était votre sœur...
 Il se tut. Le village dépassé, quelques fermes bordaient encore un des
côtés du sentier qu’ils prirent pour couper vers la plaine. Des hêtres, alignés
sur le talus, une fraîcheur descendait, qui les surprit, après l’haleine
embrasée de la route crayeuse. D’un commun accord, ils s’arrêtèrent pour
s’adosser au talus herbeux contre lequel tous les amoureux du village
devisaient. Et l’instituteur reprit:
—J’ai eu l’impression qu’une somme, une somme raisonnable, bien
entendu...
Fanny étendit la main:
—Oh! non, non, plus d’argent entre nous! Il y en a eu trop, déjà!
M. Froment rougit jusqu’aux yeux. Fanny en eut honte pour lui.
—Vous ne pouvez pas savoir, se hâta-t-elle de dire, perdant sa réserve
coutumière, tant elle se pressait de s’excuser, mais c’est l’argent qu’on a
donné, déjà, qui a tout perdu. Et l’argent n’arrange rien.
—Quelquefois, dit l’instituteur qui s’était remis. C’est une question de
délicatesse. Il est évident qu’il n’est revenu, qu’il n’est entré dans votre vie
que pour cela.
Elle détourna la tête.
—Oh! pardon, je vous blesse, mais il faut porter le fer dans la plaie,
voyez-vous, le fer rouge.
Il répéta, content de son image et la poussant encore:
—Le fer rouge à blanc.
Elle ne disait rien, la tête toujours détournée. Alors, il insista avec
douceur et fermeté:
—Voyons, réfléchissez vous-même. Il est venu réclamer quelque chose,
n’est-ce pas? Eh bien, quoi? Sinon ce qu’un homme élevé comme lui peut
réclamer?
Comme elle ne répondait toujours rien, il se pencha et, stupéfait, vit
qu’elle pleurait.
—Oh! fit-il, avec cet air à la fois mécontent et surpris des hommes
lorsqu’ils voient le monument solide de leur argumentation battu en brèche
par la marée des larmes féminines.
Elle bégaya:
—Elevé comme lui, c’est justement!
 «Il n’aurait pas dû être élevé comme ça! C’est moi, c’est moi...»
Elle ne put achever, les sanglots l’étouffaient. Sa pensée désolée lui
disait: «Tu as perdu ta vie, perdu ton fils, et tu perds maintenant celui-ci qui
te restait.» Elle savait qu’elle ne pouvait plus être touchante sous les larmes,
que ce temps-là était passé pour elle. Et pourtant, elle pleurait toujours.
Par discrétion, il se détourna.
—Remettez-vous, je vous prie.
Il fit quelques pas sur le sentier. Alors, comme elle sentait la tempête
diminuer, elle fit les gestes automatiques des femmes qui se rajustent et
essuient sur leur visage la trace passionnée que personne ne doit voir. Sans
mot dire, elle vint à côté de lui, et ils reprirent le sentier.
Mas ils ne savaient ni l’un ni l’autre où renouer la chaîne des paroles.
Toutes celles qu’ils venaient de manier les brûlaient encore. Enfin, Fanny
commença:
—Je vous ennuie: je... je suis ridicule...
Il protesta du geste.
—Oh! je trouve cela si naturel! C’est un si grand désarroi pour vous,
pauvre amie!
Le joli mot inusité la fit frémir.
—Oui, dit-elle, un remords surtout.
Il s’arrêta au milieu du chemin vert criblé de rayons obliques:
—Non, ne dites pas cela. Il ne faut pas. Vous n’avez pas de remords à
avoir. A travers ce que votre sœur m’a dit, j’ai compris. Vous avez été
forcée, forcée à tout. Il n’y a pas de remords à avoir.
Il parlait avec fermeté et noblesse. Une sorte de sensation de certitude
accompagnait ses paroles dans l’entendement de Fanny. Et elle ne trouva
rien à répondre.
Ils marchèrent encore un peu, puis il reprit, continuant sa pensée:
—Pas de remords non plus à employer le seul moyen possible.
Comprenez bien ceci, Fanny: ce n’est pas une réparation en... affection qu’il
est venu vous demander aujourd’hui; c’est une réparation...
Il se tourna vers elle:
—Endurcissez-vous à l’entendre: en argent. Et c’est pourquoi je vous
parlais d’une somme raisonnable...
 Fanny marchait toujours, bercée par cette voix profonde qui devait avoir
raison. Oui, c’était cela sans doute qu’il fallait faire, dans l’intérêt de tous,
c’était même peut-être le devoir...
Elle dit, enfin:
—Vous croyez vraiment qu’il accepterait, et que je dois le faire?
—Mais, c’est certain, dit-il avec emphase, c’est l’évidence même.
Ils arrivaient à l’extrémité des fermes, et le chemin rural se changeait en
sentier bordé de champs. Fanny s’arrêta.
—Il va falloir que je m’en retourne. Mais, il part ce soir. Comment m’y
prendre?
Silas lui tendit la main.
—Laissez-moi tous vos ennuis. Je le ferai, moi.
Elle le regarda avec appréhension.
—Mais, comment?
—Ne dites rien, ce soir. Qu’il parte. Il a une intention; celle de revenir
vous persécuter, sans doute. Je lui écrirais pour vous.
—Merci, dit-elle avec embarras. Vraiment, je voudrais bien, si ce n’était
pas trop de dérangement.
—Pouvez-vous croire, Fanny! demanda-t-il avec chaleur. C’est dit, je lui
écrirai.
Il lui serra plus fort la main.
—A bientôt, dit-il. C’est entendu. A Lisieux, au 200ᵉ d’infanterie. Oui.
Naturellement, je ne fixerai pas de somme, cela viendra ensuite. Au revoir.
Il ne lui donna point de baiser. Quelque chose entre eux les séparait, ou
quelqu’un. Il s’en alla dans la coupure que faisait le sentier entre un champ
de blé roux et un champ d’avoine blonde.
Immobile, elle le suivait des yeux, et le vit se retourner. Il la regarda,
parut hésiter, et revint enfin.
Quand il fut devant elle, il lui sembla qu’il était plus pâle. Il ouvrit la
bouche sans trouver de mots. Et il finit par dire:
—Et comment, comment l’adresser?
Elle ne comprit pas.
—Comment l’adresser?
 —Oui, le nom.
—Eh bien, M. Félix, M. Félix...
Atterrée, elle s’interrompit.
—Oui, Félix...
Son regard se chargea d’épouvante et tout l’opprobre du monde tomba
sur ses épaules. Elle venait seulement de comprendre qu’elle ne savait pas
le nom de son fils.
 TROISIEME PARTIE

I
Depuis que leur résolution était prise, une sorte de tranquillité venait aux
sœurs. Les hésitations, les tourments ressentis par l’une et par l’autre, bien
qu’à des degrés différents de tonalité et d’intensité, s’apaisaient
momentanément dans une certitude.
C’est le soir même du départ de Félix qu’elles comprirent qu’il fallait
définitivement quitter Beuzeboc pour la Hêtraye.
Après leur entretien, Fanny quitta Silas, toute honte bue, sans trouver un
mot à ajouter. Et le chemin du retour fut vraiment son chemin de croix. Un
petit fait pourtant, qui n’était pas nouveau et qui ne changeait rien à l’état
des choses, que cette ignorance de l’état civil de son fils. Pour elle, il
dépassait tous les autres en importance, en signification, en résultats.
Une honte nouvelle l’avait accablée quand elle s’était retrouvée en sa
présence. Elle n’osait plus le regarder: il lui semblait que son fils lisait, cette
fois, sur sa figure, un remords d’une autre qualité.
Ils avaient dîné silencieusement. Berthe boudait Fanny depuis sa sortie
avec Silas, et le gars mangeait, comme toujours, avec conviction. Enfin, il
s’était levé:
—Faut que j’ m’en aille. L’ train est à dix heures, à Villebonne.
Fanny remarqua qu’il était lavé, astiqué et frotté. Et elle dit:
—Tout est-il prêt?
Elle n’osait dire tu, ni vous. C’est pourquoi elle ne s’adressait jamais à
lui, directement. Mais, cette fois, ce fut, malgré elle, la mère dont le fils,
millionnaire ou mendiant, gagne le régiment, qui parla:
—Oui, dit-il, j’en ai pas lourd!
Il se balançait d’un pied sur l’autre. On voyait les paroles s’amasser sans
trouver d’issue. Enfin, il dit:
—Je vous remercie. C’est un agrément d’être ici.
Personne ne répondit. Alors, il parut s’enhardir et prononça:
—Vous auriez besoin...
 Il s’arrêta, comme pour juger de l’effet de ce début. Puis il reprit:
—D’un bon domestique.
Ce fut le tonnerre éclaté aux pieds des sœurs. On eût dit qu’elles en
restaient assourdies. La première, Berthe se remit:
—Et alors? dit-elle avec quelque insolence.
—Et alors, je connais le métier, tout le monde vous le dira. Vous n’avez
qu’à vous informer...
Fanny songea: «Sans nom!»
Berthe réfléchissait sans répondre. Elle semblait peser des choses. Enfin,
elle dit:
—Vous rêvez, mon garçon! Nous n’avons pas besoin d’un domestique.
Nous «n’occupons» pas, nous demeurons à Beuzeboc.
Les yeux bruns du gars eurent un vif regard sur lequel il tira aussitôt le
rideau de ses paupières.
—Vot’ bail va finir, dit-il, vous pourriez bien reprendre la ferme à vot’
compte.
—Par exemple, comme vous arrangez ça! fit la grosse fille, suffoquée.
Fanny pensa douloureusement: «Il sait tout ce qui concerne nos intérêts,
tout. Mais il ne sait pas laquelle est sa mère.»
—C’est une bonne ferme, reprit le gars. J’ai regardé les terres. Y’a plus
mauvais. L’ père Laurent est vieux. I’ s’ mettra chez sa fille...
—Vous êtes au courant! fit Berthe avec ironie.
Le gars eut un sourire qui éclaira soudain sa figure impénétrable d’un
rayon d’intelligence. Il continua:
—Elle ne rapporte pas c’ qu’elle pourrait, c’te ferme-là. Ils sont trop
vieux... De l’argent, qu’on en tirerait!
Berthe l’écoutait attentivement, toute ironie disparue. Elle répéta:
—De l’argent...
Avec un art consommé de roublard, il rompit les chiens.
—Faut que j’ m’en aille, dit-il. A revoir!
Il tendit la main, sa main durcie de paysan-soldat. Et Fanny, pour la
première fois, remarqua sa petitesse, qu’il tenait d’elle.
 Berthe la serra mollement en réfléchissant toujours. Fanny la prit en
tremblant. C’était la première fois qu’elle touchait son fils. Une langueur
l’envahit tout entière. Que c’était doux!
L’étreinte se desserra. Elle restait tremblante, oppressée, les yeux
mouillés. Le gars regardait Berthe.
Alors, comme frappée d’une idée subite, celle-ci dit avec décision:
—On vous écrira.
Le gars enregistra gravement:
—Bon.
Il alla vers la porte. Fanny étendit la main. Voilà. Le moment était venu:
—Berthe! cria-t-elle.
Berthe la regarda étonnée. Que pouvait-elle avoir à demander? On
arrangeait tout pour elle.
Fanny comprit si complètement, cette fois, que tout son courage défaillit.
Eh bien, oui, après tout, accepter cela encore; le laisser partir sans savoir
son nom; ne pas lutter, ne pas même intervenir.
—Rien, rien, dit-elle en se passant la main sur le front d’un air un peu
égaré.
Ce fut pourtant comme si cette pensée fulgurante avait jailli de son
cerveau dans celui de sa sœur, car Berthe se retourna vers le soldat:
—Mais, à propos, comment l’adresser?
Du seuil, il se retourna:
—Au 200ᵉ de ligne, 6ᵉ bataillon, 3ᵉ compagnie, à Lisieux.
—Oui, mais...
A son tour, elle hésitait, arrêtée devant l’obstacle monstrueux que toute
sa ruse n’avait pas prévu.
Et le soldat, la main sur la clenche, faisait une figure de surprise
évidente.
Sa ruse à lui était dépassée.
—Qu’est-ce que c’est? demanda-t-il enfin.
Pour la première fois de leur vie, Fanny vit sa sœur embarrassée. Les
yeux détournés, elle cherchait le mot nécessaire sans le trouver.
Le silence devint pesant. Enfin, Berthe dit avec difficulté:
 —Toute l’adresse, c’est comment?
Le gars la regardait toujours sans comprendre. Puis, comme s’il eût enfin
pris son parti d’obéir, il ânonna:
—Malandain Félix, au 200ᵉ d’infanterie, 4ᵉ bataillon, 2ᵉ compagnie,
Lisieux.
—Ah! cria Fanny.
Mais Berthe fit un pas en avant pour la cacher, et elle dit, avec une
indifférence forcée, sonnant singulièrement dans sa voix qu’elle forçait afin
de couvrir celle de sa sœur:
—C’est ça, c’est ça. Bien, au revoir, mon garçon.
Il les regardait toujours, et quelque chose du mystère qui s’agitait là
parut filtrer jusqu’à lui. Il eut un mince sourire.
—On m’appelle comme ça, fit-il.
Et son regard acheva la phrase si nettement que tous crurent l’entendre
dire: «Mais ce n’est pas mon nom.»
Le silence dura un peu trop pour ne pas devenir dangereux. Enfin, Félix
ajouta tout haut:
—Parce que je suis resté longtemps avec les Malandain.
Il se mit à rire niaisement, de la façon la plus inattendue.
—C’est un «surpiquet», un surnom, qu’ils appellent. Je suis «dit
Malandain».
Il s’arrêta de rire et ajouta avec une sorte de solennité:
—Mon nom, c’est...
Et, se ravisant tout à coup, il termina:
—Vous avez pas qu’à mettre: Félix, dit Malandain, «ils» me trouveront
bien.
Il toucha du doigt son képi qui n’avait pas quitté sa tête, et passa la porte.
Arrivé au bas des marches, il se retourna et, voyant qu’elles n’avaient
pas bougé et le regardaient toujours, il leur jeta:
—Un bon domestique qu’il vous faut ici.
Et il s’en alla pour de bon.
C’est alors qu’elles virent qu’il n’y avait qu’à céder, et qu’elles
décidèrent de s’installer à la Hêtraye, temporairement tout au moins. Il y a
des forces qu’on ne discute pas. En Félix, les sœurs en reconnaissaient une
avec laquelle il fallait compter.
Ce fut Berthe qui l’exprima la première. A l’indicible étonnement de
Fanny, elle ne fit ni lamentations, ni reproches. Elle paraissait céder à la
nécessité, mais en bonne joueuse. L’aînée songea: «Elle a toujours aimé la
campagne.» Et elle accumula toutes les objections comme si, puisqu’elles
devaient être invoquées et que Berthe ne s’en chargeait pas, la tâche lui en
revint. L’étonnement de leurs amis et du monde devant cette décision
soudaine; l’opposition certaine de l’oncle Nathan; les difficultés matérielles
de ce changement d’existence: leur confort, leur commodité abandonnés
avec la maison de la vallée... Mais Berthe allait au-devant de tout et, une
fois de plus, Fanny accepta le joug commode qui descendait sur elle, et
auquel elle n’aurait plus qu’à obéir.

Quand elles rentrèrent, deux jours plus tard, Beuzeboc cuisait au fond de
sa cuvette, sous le soleil d’août. Leur absence n’avait duré que dix jours.
Elles se virent complimentées sur leur courage:
«Rentrer ici quand vous étiez si bien à respirer là-haut!»
La bonne Mme Gallier usait son tablier de moire à leur exprimer son
étonnement.
—Tant qu’à faire, il fallait rester plus longtemps.
Ainsi, les sœurs rentraient dans le lit ordinaire de leur vie que de leurs
mains, il allait falloir défaire. Car cette chose incroyable arrivait qu’elles
allaient quitter la ville ronronnante et les rues aux pavés bossus, et leur
maison où chacun de leurs mouvements avait son aire prévue et sa portée
certaine, et l’église, debout comme une douairière qui attend ses invités du
haut de son perron, et les rues qui regardent par leurs fenêtres abritées sous
les paupières des rideaux, et les ruelles mortes, pleines d’amoureux, toute la
ville, enfin, de toute leur vie, pour gagner ce plateau d’où leur famille était
descendue un jour d’autrefois.
Berthe profita de ces paroles d’accueil pour amorcer la chose. Oui, elles
s’étaient plu à la Hêtraye, tellement qu’elles y retourneraient bientôt, ayant
d’ailleurs à s’occuper de leur ferme dont le bail expirait à Pâques. Elle
hasarda qu’elles pourraient avoir à y passer l’automne entière car la maison
nécessitait des réparations et que Fanny, surtout, se portait bien là-haut et y
dormait mieux.
 Elle plaçait soigneusement ses allusions, ses raisons, comme un alpiniste
place son pied, sans rien laisser au hasard parmi les nouvelles qu’on lui
demandait sur le voyage à Paris.
Les amis disaient entre eux:
—Elle rajeunit, Berthe!
Et quelque chose en elle semblait, en effet, s’épanouir, un espoir ou une
certitude.
L’oncle Nathan rentra de la Manche deux jours après. Il arriva au soir
chez ses nièces, et les trouva au jardin. Fanny essayait de se ressaisir, car le
tourbillon qui l’entraînait depuis la rencontre du chemineau lui faisait
perdre la notion de la réalité et, rejetée de Félix à Silas et du chemineau à
Ludovic, promenée dans les souvenirs de Bures, de Paris et de la Hêtraye,
elle dérivait au fil des événements terrifiants dont elle se trouvait témoin et
acteur.
Et, depuis son retour, la maison d’école était fermée. Sans doute n’y
avait-il là rien d’extraordinaire, puisque l’époque des vacances venait
d’arriver. Mais ce départ sans un avertissement la frappait comme un
nouveau malheur. Non, ils n’avaient pas dit un mot de cela à la Hêtraye
pendant cet étrange repas, ni plus tard, au cours de cette conversation dont
le souvenir encore la frappait d’un coup au cœur.
Une cendre d’or tombait de la coupole enflammée quand le grand
vieillard arriva. Sa face d’oiseau de proie, entourée de l’argent pur de ses
cheveux, resplendissait. Il s’assit sans rien dire, puis s’informa des santés,
des poules, parla du terrain. Enfin, il dit, comme à regret:
—Comme ça, vous êtes allées à Paris?
Berthe prit avec empressement les rênes de la conversation.
—Oui, on voulait toujours: on s’est décidé.
Le long nez austère du vieillard qui contredisait sa bouche curieuse parut
vouloir réduire celle-ci au silence. Il y eut une pause.
—C’est beau, murmura Berthe.
—Oui, dit-il. Il y a à voir.
—Sûr, approuva-t-elle.
—Plus qu’ici.
 D’un commun accord, ils se donnèrent trêve afin de ramasser de
meilleures armes pour le combat, dont les préparatifs avaient lieu entre le
rusé vieillard et Berthe qui ne laisserait filtrer son butin de nouvelles que
goutte à goutte.
Fanny se leva. Une lassitude lui venait d’avance.
—Je vais vous faire du thé, dit-elle.
L’oncle approuva avec vivacité: un repas supplémentaire gratuit ne lui
était jamais désagréable.
Elle s’en alla vers la maison environnée du parfum que le soir arrachait
aux fleurs. Elle songeait avec amertume à la conversation qui commençait
derrière elle. Toute sa vie, toute sa vie livrée à ces mains cruelles qui
auraient pu être douces. Demain, ce seraient celles des étrangers, peut-être,
qui arracheraient avec sa chair le vêtement secret que chacun serre si fort
contre soi...
Pourtant, ses craintes furent encore une fois dépassées par la réalité.
Malgré les surprenantes confidences reçues, l’oncle n’y fit aucune allusion.
Il but et mangea en parlant des affaires qu’il avait faites dans le Cotentin.
Seulement, quand il partit, il adressa à Berthe un signe d’intelligence
qu’elle surprit. Et il dit à Fanny, comme en réfléchissant:
—A la Hêtraye, à la Hêtraye, que tu veux aller?
Elle le regarda avec surprise.
—Oui, dit-elle d’un ton craintif, nous croyons que c’est le mieux.
Il la fixa encore d’un air goguenard et attentif et fit un geste qu’elle ne
comprit pas. Berthe s’était détournée avec affectation. Fanny regarda
profondément le vieillard. Voilà. C’était lui qui représentait toute leur
famille, surtout les hommes, puisqu’elles ne possédaient ni père, ni frères,
ni maris. En ce quart d’heure que Berthe avait si bien employé, il venait
d’apprendre avec ces nouvelles du passé (le message du chemineau et sa
mort, l’arrivée du fils abandonné), cette nouvelle du présent: les fiançailles
de Fanny et l’entrée de l’instituteur dans sa vie. Et tout cela ne valait pas un
mot, une allusion... Elle se sentait à la fois allégée et frustrée, car
l’indifférence est quelquefois comme une insulte.
Elle réfléchit longtemps là-dessus ce soir-là. Maintenant, toutes ces
choses qu’il fallait qu’elle fît étaient comme un rocher sur sa route. Enorme,
il barrait son horizon et elle se disait: «Jamais je n’arriverai à le remuer.»
 Comment supposer, par exemple, qu’elles réussiraient à faire passer pour
naturelle leur soudaine retraite à la Hêtraye? Et comment si, déjà, on n’avait
jasé de la présence du soldat, n’en jaserait-on point? Et comment, encore,
prendrait-on cette nouvelle attitude de Silas auprès d’elles? Silas. Lui seul,
de son bras d’homme fort aurait pu faire vaciller le rocher. Fanny l’avait
presque cru, en l’entendant la revendiquer comme sienne, l’autre jour, à la
Hêtraye. Oui, mais il était parti. Parti sans rien dire. Lui aussi, à la onzième
heure, il l’abandonnait.
Le lendemain, dimanche, les sœurs se rendirent au temple. Un orage
avait éclaté dans la nuit. La ville et les bois brillaient, vernis de neuf, sous
un soleil rafraîchi. Les demoiselles montèrent à la tribune. Le lecteur, qui
remplaçait toujours l’instituteur pour les vacances, lisait la Bible. C’était un
petit homme avec de grosses moustaches grises et des paupières
sanguinolentes. Il psalmodiait complaisamment sa lecture. Par le vitrail
ouvert, on voyait une rose-thé se balancer au bout d’une longue tige sur le
mur voisin. Fanny ne pouvait s’empêcher de suivre la fleur des yeux et il lui
semblait qu’elle ne retrouverait jamais son ancienne ferveur. Son cœur
paraissait dévasté, aride, vide comme le vaste édifice clair dénudé de la
voix de Silas, de la voix sonore, caressante, savante de Silas! Les assistants
arrivaient, gagnaient leurs places dans les bancs que leur famille occupait
depuis l’origine du temple. Le culte se déroulait selon la liturgie immuable;
tout ici était fixe et solide. Le malheur d’une vie ne pouvait cependant pas
se consommer dans l’ombre de ces choses éternelles!
Elle ferma les yeux pour mieux poursuivre un raisonnement qui se
brisait. Elle les rouvrit tout à coup; la basse veloutée de l’instituteur montait
d’en bas jusqu’à elle comme tous les dimanches. Elle crut rêver et attendit
le dernier cantique où, de nouveau, la voix s’éleva. Pourtant, il n’était ni à
la tribune, ni au banc du consistoire. Et ce ne fut qu’à la sortie qu’elle vit
qu’elle ne rêvait point, car il était là, vraiment, en face de la porte, qui la
cherchait des yeux.
Ce fut comme un miracle ou plutôt comme un signe qui lui était destiné.
Elle songea à l’arc-en-ciel après le déluge, à la manne au désert. Mais, tant
de regards étaient sur eux qu’elle n’osa aller vers lui et passa. Berthe,
d’ailleurs, avait déjà pris les devants et Fanny dut courir pour la rattraper, et
mener le même train jusqu’à la maison. Elles trouvèrent l’oncle Nathan
assis à la table, la serviette nouée derrière le cou.
 —Allons, cria-t-il, y’a temps pour tout! J’ai été au temple à Saint-
Antoine, et me v’là.
—Avec vot’ cheval qui va comme l’enfer, c’est pas drôle! fit Berthe qui
tamponnait sa figure rouge et suante.
—Pourquoi se presser tant? osa demander Fanny qu’un fil invisible avait
tiré en arrière tout le long du chemin.
L’oncle et l’autre nièce échangèrent un regard plein de signification.
—On t’expliquera tout à l’heure, mangeons, dit le vieillard.
Fanny sentit s’amasser un de ces orages lourds de paroles et
d’exhortations qui crevaient si souvent sur elle depuis quelque temps, et le
bon déjeuner dominical du père Oursel fut gâté pour elle.
M. Le Brument commença avec le dessert:
—Alors, ma fille, dit-il en s’adressant à Fanny, comme ça, tu veux aller à
la Hêtraye?
L’entretien se renouait au point exact où il s’était rompu. C’était de bon
protocole normand.
Elle dit en hésitant:
—Je veux, c’est-à-dire nous croyons que ça vaut mieux pour le moment.
Il opina, débonnairement, de toutes ses petites boucles d’argent.
—Oui, c’est sûr.
Et il laissa aux paroles de Fanny le temps de vivre et de mourir dans l’air
avant d’en ajouter d’autres.
—Vous croyez, reprit-il, vous croyez, mais si c’est pour le monde...
C’est-il pour le monde?
—Bien sûr! fit Berthe complaisamment en commère qui place une
réplique.
—Eh bien, ça étant, tu n’as peut-être pas raison.
—Comment? demanda Fanny, déroutée.
Il eut l’air de réfléchir et son grand nez en bec de rapace s’inclina vers la
nappe. Puis il dit lentement:
—Faudrait que ça soit toi qui y ailles, à la Hêtraye avec ce gars, pour
l’apaiser.
—Moi? Comment, moi?
 —Oui, toi, toute seule.
—Sans Berthe? cria-t-elle avec une véhémence si inaccoutumée qu’un
instant ils lui livrèrent leurs yeux surpris, tels qu’ils étaient.
—Oui, sans Berthe. Comme ça, on n’aurait pas à trouver drôle que vous
laissiez votre maison d’ici, car ça le semblera, drôle!
Elle restait abasourdie. Jamais cela ne s’était présenté à son esprit. Et,
marquant son avantage, le vieillard continua:
—Et puis, toute seule, c’est «bien de révisé» si tu n’arrives pas à le
dompter, le gars! Il y en a d’aucuns qui sont ambitionnés à ne pas céder
devant un autre que leur maître. J’ai vu des chevaux comme ça!
Le ridicule de la comparaison ne frappa même pas Fanny. Elle songea
seulement avec désespoir: «Dompter quelqu’un! Comme si je le pouvais!»
Et, tout de suite, un souci lui revint:
—Et Berthe?
Le bonhomme gratta son grand nez sec.
—Elle restera ici, je te dis. Elle...
Il s’interrompit, comme s’il se trouvait devant des mots trop lourds à
prononcer. Et, instinctivement, Fanny, si peu perspicace, mais si sensitive,
fut certaine que tout ce qui avait été dit jusque-là n’était rien et que tout
n’avait été dit que pour en venir là. Et elle reprit, d’un ton machinal, comme
si le dernier mot eût été un levier pour soulever les autres:
—Elle...?
Le père Oursel entra avec le café. Avec ses mouvements d’automate, il
posa la cafetière—car on n’avait jamais pu l’habituer à l’usage du plateau—
et il disparut sans qu’une fois son regard eût croisé celui des autres.
M. Le Brument dit à mi-voix à Berthe:
—Toujours de d’ même, l’ père Oursel! En v’là un qui s’occupe pas du
tiers et du quart! Quel bonhomme! Je suis sûr qu’il sait seulement pas ce
qui se passe sous son nez!
Berthe dit, dédaigneusement:
—L’ père Oursel? Rien, c’est rien.
En Fanny les pensées cheminaient comme sur un vent d’ouest. Elle était
sûre qu’on allait lui parler de l’instituteur, sans deviner comment. Enfin le
vieillard commença:
 —M. Froment, votre voisin, il est parti, d’apparence?
—Il est revenu, dit Fanny: nous l’avons vu au temple, tout à l’heure.
—Revenu! Sa maison était fermée pour les vacances. Comment?
Personne ne répondit. Il reprit:
—Comment? C’est bien drôle, ça!
Pour la première fois depuis le début de la conversation, il paraissait
sincère.
Il y eut un silence, puis il continua:
—C’est peut-être quelque chose qu’il avait oublié.
Il regardait Berthe. Elle dit seulement:
—Ouat!
Elle semblait agitée et anxieuse. Fanny songea:
«Ça la contrarie qu’il soit revenu. Elle ne veut pas que je le revoie.»
Le bonhomme poursuivit, comme s’il prenait enfin une résolution:
—Faut te faire une raison, Fanny, ma fille. Faut te faire une raison.
Cette fois, il la regardait. Elle essaya de saisir quelque chose dans les
froids yeux bleus, si pareils à ceux de sa mère, ces yeux qui avaient glacé sa
vie. Mais, comme toujours, elle y fut impuissante.
D’ailleurs, le moment favorable était passé. Il se leva, après avoir plié
méthodiquement sa serviette et secoué ses miettes.
—Puisque c’est comme ça, faut que j’ m’en aille. Il est temps.
Berthe se leva et alla lui chuchoter quelques mots à l’oreille. Il fit: «Oui»
de la tête. Puis, prenant son chapeau:
—Fais-toi une raison, ma fille, dit-il, c’est ton intérêt.
Fanny écoutait désespérément. Elle sentait que quelque chose était
résolu contre elle qu’elle ne savait pas. Et elle ne comprit que lorsqu’elle vit
l’oncle entrer par la petite porte de la cour d’école.
Pâle jusqu’aux lèvres, elle se retourna. Berthe la guettait. Alors un peu
de courage lui vint. Qu’est-ce qu’ils avaient décidé? La question dut être si
clairement écrite dans ses yeux que Berthe répondit avec une espèce
d’arrogance qui masquait autre chose:
—Faut bien en finir!
Fanny mit sa main à sa gorge.
 —Finir quoi?
Une expression nouvelle parut sur la grosse figure de la cadette. Elle
posa la main sur le bras de sa sœur.
—Allons, allons! dit-elle avec une espèce de bonhomie, si ça a du bon
sens!
Elle l’attira dans la pièce.
—Quitte cette fenêtre. Qu’est-ce que ça te donne de guetter la route?
Elle continua pendant un instant à prononcer des phrases insignifiantes,
qui déjà agissaient par cette vertu lénifiante des mots de tous les jours dans
les situations graves. Machinalement, Fanny obéissait et c’était le
commencement de sa reddition.
Berthe la fit asseoir. Elle s’assit elle-même, et puis elle commença:
—Ecoute...
Elle se recueillit quelques secondes et détourna les yeux de la pâle figure
hallucinée de Fanny.
—Tu vois bien toi-même que ça ne peut pas durer comme ça. Il faut
prendre un parti. Sur le coup, on ne se rend pas compte. Mais le monde ne
comprendrait pas que nous allions toutes les deux nous enterrer à la
campagne. Il faut une raison pour que tu partes, puisque c’est toi qui doit
partir: une raison... importante... qui nous oblige à nous séparer. Tu
comprends?
Les yeux de Fanny répondirent éloquemment que non.
Berthe reprit, avec une sorte de patience appliquée:
—Il n’y a qu’une raison qui puisse nous y forcer. Vois-tu ça?
Elle se penchait pour forcer une réponse. Fanny fit: «Non», de tout son
visage étonné.
—La raison qui fait qu’une femme veut rester seule... c’est-à-dire pas
toute seule...
Elle fit un geste violent:
—Que je me marie, enfin! Est-ce si drôle que ça?
Fanny, stupéfiée au delà des paroles vaines, ne bougea pas. Berthe reprit:
—Oui... c’est ça qui arrangerait tout. Tu pars à la Hêtraye, puisque tu
n’as pas d’autre moyen d’en finir avec ce gars que de le supporter. Moi qui
n’y suis pour rien (elle accentua cruellement), je reste ici, avec...
 Elle ne put aller plus loin. Peut-être n’eût-elle pas osé. Mais Fanny se
leva brusquement comme quelqu’un qui, enfin, voit.
—Avec...? fit-elle sourdement.
Berthe se leva aussi pour l’affronter mieux, puisque la masse est aussi un
argument.
—Avec l’homme qui comprendra qui il doit choisir, quand on lui aura
montré.
Fanny dit seulement:
—C’est l’oncle Nathan qui a...
Berthe inclina la tête.
—L’oncle Nathan est allé lui parler, oui.
Il y eut un silence. Fanny n’osait pas regarder sa sœur. Puis elle dit:
—Car enfin, tu dis que vous vous êtes mis d’accord... Peut-être. Mais
c’était avant l’arrivée de Félix. Ça change tout, une chose pareille. Pour un
homme surtout. Et il faudrait avoir bien peu de «cœur» pour courir après.
Fanny étendit la main.
—Je ne cours pas après, dit-elle d’une voix étranglée. Tu sais bien ce
qu’il a dit à la Hêtraye l’autre jour.
Berthe parut chercher.
—Ce qu’il a dit?
Fanny ne répondit pas. Un immense découragement s’abattait sur elle.
Qu’était-ce que ce petit argument qui lui restait, en présence de toutes ces
implacables vérités... Silas l’avait appelée Fanny devant les autres, oui. Par
distraction, peut-être, ou par pitié, pour adoucir le coup qu’il voulait lui
porter et qu’il n’avait pas le courage de lui porter encore... Mais aucun mot
décisif ne lui était échappé, aucune allusion à leurs projets de naguère,
quand c’eût été le moment entre tous d’en parler... Et puis, surtout, surtout,
le départ, cette maison silencieuse et aveugle qui lui était apparue alors
comme une réponse définitive.
Elle baissa la tête. Elle n’était plus sûre de rien.
Comme si elle suivait ses pensées et se trouvait obligée de les résumer et
de les poursuivre, Berthe reprit alors:
—Il n’a rien dit de remarquable devant moi et, entre nous, à en juger par
la figure que tu avais en revenant...
 La phrase qu’elle laissa en suspens se termina à leurs oreilles comme si
elle était prononcée. Il n’avait rien dit, non, il n’avait rien dit.
Et, soudain, Fanny sentit la vanité de la lutte pour celui qui n’a pas
d’arme. Après le découragement, le renoncement entra dans la place. Sans
parler, elle fit un geste de lassitude. A cette sœur qui voulait lui voler un
amour qu’elle était pourtant bien sûre d’avoir possédé, elle ne dirait rien,
c’était trop difficile, elle ne savait pas reprocher, prendre la voix haineuse
qu’il faut, jeter les mots comme on jette des pavés... Elle pensa: «Faites,
faites, écrasez-moi! Je ne sentirai bientôt plus rien.»
Comme étonnée de la promptitude de sa victoire, Berthe regarda sa sœur,
inerte, passive, la tête baissée et les mains jointes sur les genoux. Et, sans
honte, elle retourna vers la fenêtre et se colla le front contre les carreaux
pour épier le retour du vieillard.
Quand il arriva, elles étaient toujours dans la même position, mais, ni le
bruit de la grille, ni celui de la porte d’entrée, ni le grincement du pêne ne
tirèrent Fanny de ses pensées.
Le bonhomme entra. En quittant la grande lumière, il tâtonna dans le
demi-jour frais. Fanny leva enfin sur lui ses yeux mornes. Il paraissait
singulièrement agité et se laissa tomber sur une chaise en retirant son
chapeau à larges bords.
—Bougre! dit-il. C’est pire que le four du boulanger, dehors!
Berthe fit un pas. Toute sa prudence l’abandonnait:
—Eh bien, mon oncle?
Il agita l’air avec son chapeau auprès de sa figure pendant un moment.
—Eh bien, dit-il enfin, y’a rien à lui dire, c’est Fanny qu’il veut.

Ce ne fut que le lendemain que l’aînée revit son fiancé. Elle était restée
effarée, presque assommée de ce coup de massue. A ce degré-là, le bonheur
dépasse son étiage, sa marque, et fait perdre la sensibilité sans laquelle on
ne peut le goûter. Au premier sentiment de triomphe, ineffable redressement
de l’être courbé, reprenant enfin son jet vers le ciel, succédait une sorte
d’hébétement. L’âme fatiguée de Fanny ne savait plus soutenir sa joie,
tandis que ce sacrifice accepté lui faisait une route austère et facile, où elle
se sentait sûre de pouvoir marcher.
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