s time of year. Business is slack, old
boy--"

"Stop! I don't allow you to speak to me in that way."

"No offence, brother Nathan!"

"Brother Lemuel, I never allow a fool to offend me. I put him in his
place--that's all."

The distant barking of a dog became audible from the lane by which the
house was approached. The sound seemed to annoy Benjulia. "What's that?"
he asked.

Lemuel saw his way to making some return for his brother's reception of
him.

"It's my dog," he said; "and it's lucky for you that I have left him in
the cab."

"Why?"

"Well, he's as sweet-tempered a dog as ever lived. But he has one
fault. He doesn't take kindly to scientific gentlemen in your line of
business." Lemuel paused, and pointed to his brother's hands. "If he
smelt that, he might try his teeth at vivisecting You."

The spots of blood which Ovid had once seen on Benjulia's stick, were on
his hands now. With unruffled composure he looked at the horrid stains,
silently telling their tale of torture.

"What's the use of washing my hands," he answered, "when I am going back
to my work?"

He wiped his finger and thumb on the tail of his coat. "Now," he
resumed, "if you have got your letter with you, let me look at it."

Lemuel produced the letter. "There are some bits in it," he explained,
"which you had better not see. If you want the truth--that's the reason
I brought it myself. Read the first page-and then I'll tell you where to
skip."

So far, there was no allusion to Ovid. Benjulia turned to the second
page--and Lemuel pointed to the middle of it. "Read as far as that," he
went on, "and then skip till you come to the last bit at the end."

On the last page, Ovid's name appeared. He was mentioned, as a
"delightful person, introduced by your brother,"--and with that the
letter ended. In the first bitterness of his disappointment, Benjulia
conceived an angry suspicion of those portions of the letter which he
had been requested to pass over unread.

"What has Morphew got to say to you that I mustn't read?" he asked.

"Suppose you tell me first, what you want to find in the letter," Lemuel
rejoined. "Morphew is a doctor like you. Is it anything medical?"

Benjulia answered this in the easiest way--he nodded his head.

"Is it Vivisection?" Lemuel inquired slyly.

Benjulia at once handed the letter back, and pointed to the door. His
momentary interest in the suppressed passages was at an end. "That will
do," he answered