reconstruction and regeneration have been the inspiring principle of my
studious manhood. Humbly I have sat at the feet of Learning, enshrined
in the Ridgway Graeme pamphlets. I must meet Colonel Graeme--after
reading the pamphlets. I hope they're not long."

Warren frowned. "Colonel Graeme is a gentleman and my friend, Mr.
Jones," he said with emphasis. "I won't have him made a butt."

"He shan't be, by me," said Average Jones quietly. "Has it perhaps
struck you, as his friend, that--er--a close daily association with the
psychic remnant of a Roman citizen might conceivably be non-conducive to
his best interest?"

"Yes, it has. I see your point. You want to approach him on his weak
side. But, have you Latin enough to sustain the part? He's shrewd as a
weasel in all matters of scholarship, though a child whom any one could
fool in practical affairs."

"No; I haven't," admitted Average Jones. "Therefore, I'm a mute. A shock
in early childhood paralyzed my centers of speech. I talk to you by sign
language, and you interpret."

"But I hardly know the deaf-mute alphabet."

"Nor I. But I'll waggle my fingers like lightning if he says anything to
me requiring an answer, and you'll give the proper reply. Does Colonel
Graeme implicitly credit the Romanism of his guest?"

"He does, because he wants to. To have an educated man of the classic
period of the Latin tongue, a friend of Caesar, an auditor of Cicero
and a contemporary of Virgil, Horace and Ovid come back and speak in
the accent he's contended for, make a powerful support for his theories.
He's at work on a supplementary thesis already."

"What do the other Latin men who've seen Livius, think of the
metempsychosis claim?"

"They don't know. Livius explained his remote antecedents only after
he had got Colonel Graeme's private ear. The colonel has kept it quiet.
'Don't want a rabble of psychologists and soul-pokers worrying him to
death,' he says."

"Making it pretty plain sailing for the Roman. Well, arrange to take me
there as soon as possible."'

At the Graeme house, Average Jones was received with simple courtesy
by a thin rosy-cheeked old gentleman with a dagger-like imperial and a
dreamy eye, who, on Warren's introduction, made him free of the unkempt
old place's hospitality. They conversed for a time, Average Jones
maintaining his end with nods and gestures, and (ostensibly) through the
digital mediumship of his sponsor.

Presently Warren said to the