ke
guess,--that Madame Patoff was ashamed of something, and was willing to
be considered insane, rather than let it be thought she was in
possession of her faculties at the time when she did the deed, whatever
it might be. That this was a conceivable hypothesis there was no manner
of doubt, only I could hardly imagine what action, apart from the poor
woman's attempt at suicide, could have been so serious as to persuade
her to act insanity for the rest of her life. Surely John Carvel, with
his great, kind heart, would not be unforgiving. But John Carvel might
not have been concerned in the matter at all. He spoke of knowing the
details and being unable to tell them to me, but he never said they
concerned any one but Madame Patoff.

Strange that Hermione should not know, either. Whatever the details
were, they were not fit for her young ears. It was strange, too, that
she should have conceived an antipathy for the professor. He was a man
who was generally popular, or who at least had the faculty of making
himself acceptable when he chose; but it was perfectly evident that the
scientist and the young girl disliked each other. There was more in it
than appeared upon the surface. Innocent young girls do not suddenly
contract violent prejudices against elderly and inoffensive men who do
not weary them or annoy them in some way; still less do men of large
intellect and experience take unreasoning and foolish dislikes to young
and beautiful maidens. We know little of the hidden sympathies and
antipathies of the human heart, but we know enough to say with certainty
that in broad cases the average human being will not, without cause, act
wholly in contradiction to the dictates of reason and the probabilities
of human nature.

I lay awake long that night, and for many nights afterwards, trying to
explain to myself these problems, and planning ways and means for
discovering whether or not the beautiful old lady down-stairs was in her
right mind, or was playing a shameful and wicked trick upon the man who
sheltered her. But though other events followed each other with
rapidity, it was long before I got at the truth and settled the
question. Whether or not I was right in wishing to pursue the secret to
its ultimate source and explanation, I leave you to judge. I will only
say that, although I was at first impelled by what seems now a wretched
and worthless curiosity, I found, as time went on, that there was such a
multiplicity of i