elder brother's rudeness yet--and he knew, by
experience, the one weakness in Benjulia's character which, with his
small resources, it was possible to attack.

"Thank you for your kind inquiries," he replied. "Never mind my head, so
long as my heart's in the right place. I don't pretend to be clever--but
I've got my feelings; and I could put some awkward questions on what you
call Medical Research, if I had Morphew to help me."

"I'll help you," said Benjulia--interested in developing the state of
his brother's brain.

"I don't believe you," said Lemuel--interested in developing the state
of his brother's temper.

"Try me, Lemuel."

"All right, Nathan."

The two brothers returned to their chairs; reduced for once to the same
moral level.

CHAPTER XXXII.

"Now," said Benjulia, "what is it to be? The favourite public bugbear?
Vivisection?"

"Yes."

"Very well. What can I do for you?"

"Tell me first," said Lemuel, "what is Law?"

"Nobody knows."

"Well, then, what _ought_ it to be?"

"Justice, I suppose."

"Let me wait a bit, Nathan, and get that into my mind."

Benjulia waited with exemplary patience.

"Now about yourself," Lemuel continued. "You won't be offended--will
you? Should I be right, if I called you a dissector of living
creatures?"

Benjulia was reminded of the day when he had discovered his brother in
the laboratory. His dark complexion deepened in hue. His cold gray eyes
seemed to promise a coming outbreak. Lemuel went on.

"Does the Law forbid you to make your experiments on a man?" he asked.

"Of course it does!"

"Why doesn't the Law forbid you to make your experiments on a dog?"

Benjulia's face cleared again. The one penetrable point in his ironclad
nature had not been reached yet. That apparently childish question about
the dog appeared, not only to have interested him, but to have taken
him by surprise. His attention wandered away from his brother. His clear
intellect put Lemuel's objection in closer logical form, and asked if
there was any answer to it, thus:

The Law which forbids you to dissect a living man, allows you to dissect
a living dog. Why?

There was positively no answer to this.

Suppose he said, Because a dog is an animal? Could he, as a
physiologist, deny that a man is an animal too?

Suppose he said, Because a dog is the inferior creature in intellect?
The obvious answer to this would be, But the lower order of savage,
or the lower order of lu