He had been thinking for but fifty years, but he looked older. Now he was thinking that he was somewhat tired of thinking, and he wished that his brain would rest like the one in the bottle. He looked up as he heard a knock at his door, and informed the parlour-maid with a slow nod that she might admit Mr. Marsham and Mr. Mauleverer.

He sat like Dr. Faustus, old and weary of recurring thoughts. He sat like Dr. Faustus, far away from the long days of boyhood, the warm blood, the dreams of adventure, the marvellous discoveries, the glad fresh songs, the soft looks of women. He sat like Dr. Faustus, careless if Mr. Marsham and Mr. Mauleverer came or did not come: careless if the old earth took a wrong turn and spun into another system, or were run against by the buttend of an inconsiderable comet. He sat like Dr. Faustus; and no Dr. Faustus was ever half so surprised by sudden entry of his Mephistopheles as was Professor Montacute when his door opened and his visitors came in.

The Professor rose to greet them. Then he stood staring: then he clutched the dressing-gown above his heart; and then, with a strange quivering cry for mercy, he fell back into his chair and fainted. In a moment Mr. Marsham was supporting him in his arms, rubbing his ivory hands, calling him back to life; while Mr. Mauleverer looked from the prostrate Montacute to the placid Eugenius. "I couldn't think whom you reminded me of," said Mr. Mauleverer to Eugenius. The thin face of the Professor was blue, where he had shaved for more than thirty years, and delicately fretted with fine lines about the eyes; but, for the rest, it was the face of the boy, and at the moment the more ghostly

of the two. Two monstrous peas could not be more alike than were the heads of Professor Montacute and of the boy Eugenius. Prostrate in his high-backed chair, the figure of the Professor suggested a walking - stick swathed about with flannel. A walking-stick in an overcoat would have

suggested the body-if body it may be called-of the boy Eugenius.

Presently the eyes of the Professor opened and gazed at the boy. "God in His Heaven have mercy," he said slowly "it is my son."

"It was your son," said Mr. Mauleverer. "It's a ghost now."

“A ghost! said the Professor. "And have you come to haunt me, or to speak my doom?"

"I was brought," said Eugenius, who preserved a wonderful composure, "by these gentlemen, who hoped to convince you as a man of science that I was a fact and not impossible. Neither they nor I were aware of any relationship between us. Our visit was purely professional, and not domestic. On which basis would you wish it to continue?"

"And your mother?" asked Professor Montacute-" your mother? Is she yet alive?"

"She is," said Eugenius drily.

"I swear by Heaven! cried the Professor, struggling to his feet, and with growing excitement-"I swear by Heaven that I sought her diligently -and you-yes, you."

"For purposes of experiment?" asked Eugenius more drily.

66

The Professor fell back into his chair with a groan. For years, and years, and years," he said, "I have read and studied, till my eyes closed of themselves lest I should have a moment to think of her and of you. Terror has been at my elbow by day and in my dreams by night, and the anguish of shame and fear. I promised myself in my boyhood that I, first of all men, would rise above the weaknesses of humanity that no human feeling should hinder for a moment my search of truth. And I thought that I had gained my end, and blighted with a frost all the common emotions which I despised. married that I might be your father. I wished for your birth that I might experiment upon you at leisure."

I

"You were a damned scoundrel!" said Mr. Mauleverer.

"And where was my success?"

sound. The good man made an effort to speak, but he could not. Only he held out his hands to the Professor and helped him to his feet. The Professor trembled so much that it seemed as if he would fall again; and Noll supported him in his arms.

"You will take him to my mother?" said Eugenius, looking very softly at Noll, who nodded vehemently in answer. "My time is up," the boy went on. "God be with you all."

He went out, and no one stirred in the room till they heard the front door bang. Mr. Marsham was the first to speak.

"I hope that even at this moment," he said, "I may be allowed a single question. I cannot forget the scientific interest of this moment. Professor Montacute does not deny the ghost?"

"He doesn't deny anything," said Mr. Mauleverer largely. And the Professor bent his head with a peculiar new humility.

"Come," said Noll kindly; and he led him, after more than twenty years of lonely thinking, to his wife's feet.

JULIAN STURGIS.