t
communication from Arrowhead Village he contented himself with a brief
mention of the distinguished and accomplished gentleman now visiting the
place, whose library and cabinet of coins he had had the privilege of
examining, and whose courtesy was equalled only by the modesty that
shunned the public notoriety which the organs of popular intelligence
would otherwise confer upon him.

The Interviewer had attempted the riddle of the Sphinx, and had failed
to get the first hint of its solution.

The many tongues of the village and its visitors could not remain idle.
The whole subject of antipathies had been talked over, and the various
cases recorded had become more or less familiar to the conversational
circles which met every evening in the different centres of social
life. The prevalent hypothesis for the moment was that Maurice had a
congenital aversion to some color, the effects of which upon him were
so painful or disagreeable that he habitually avoided exposure to it.
It was known, and it has already been mentioned, that such cases were
on record. There had been a great deal of discussion, of late, with
reference to a fact long known to a few individuals, but only recently
made a matter of careful scientific observation and brought to the
notice of the public. This was the now well-known phenomenon of
color-blindness. It did not seem very strange that if one person in
every score or two could not tell red from green there might be other
curious individual peculiarities relating to color. A case has already
been referred to where the subject of observation fainted at the sight
of any red object. What if this were the trouble with Maurice Kirkwood?
It will be seen at once how such a congenital antipathy would tend to
isolate the person who was its unfortunate victim. It was an hypothesis
not difficult to test, but it was a rather delicate business to be
experimenting on an inoffensive stranger. Miss Vincent was thinking
it over, but said nothing, even to Euthymia, of any projects she might
entertain.

XII. MISS VINCENT AS A MEDICAL STUDENT.

The young lady whom we have known as The Terror, as Lurida, as Miss
Vincent, Secretary of the Pansophian Society, had been reading various
works selected for her by Dr. Butts,--works chiefly relating to the
nervous system and its different affections. She thought it was about
time to talk over the general subject of the medical profession with her
new teacher,--if such