"He--or she," Flavia added, giving Combeferre an amusedly pointed glance, "couldn't. Uncle Tar kept books and books of scientific notes--they've been awfully useful."

Even as she mentioned Tar's notebooks, Flavia thought not of them, but of a different book--one perhaps even more important than anything her great-uncle could ever have written. "And it was Harriet's notes in her old textbook that introduced me to chemistry in the first place," she said after a moment's pause.