ith
intent eyes fixed on the detached expression of the child's face, Ellen
Mary with bent head. It was a strange, yet very logical question that
came at last:

"What should I learn out of all them books?" asked the Wonder. He did
not look at Challis as he spoke.

IV

Challis drew a deep breath and turned towards Lewes. "A difficult
question, that, Lewes," he said.

Lewes lifted his eyebrows and pulled at his fair moustache. "If you take
the question literally," he muttered.

"You might learn--the essential part ... of all the knowledge that has
been ... discovered by mankind," said Challis. He phrased his sentence
carefully, as though he were afraid of being trapped.

"Should I learn what I am?" asked the Wonder.

Challis understood the question in its metaphysical acceptation. He had
the sense of a powerful but undirected intelligence working from the
simple premisses of experience; of a cloistered mind that had functioned
profoundly; a mind unbound by the tradition of all the speculations and
discoveries of man, the essential conclusions of which were contained in
that library at Challis Court.

"No!" said Challis, after a perceptible interval, "that you will not
learn from any books in my possession, but you will find grounds for
speculation."

"Grounds for speculation?" questioned the Wonder. He repeated the words
quite clearly.

"Material--matter from which you can--er--formulate theories of your
own," explained Challis.

The Wonder shook his head. It was evident that Challis's sentence
conveyed little or no meaning to him.

He got down from his chair and took up an old cricket cap of his
father's, a cap which his mother had let out by the addition of another
gore of cloth that did not match the original material. He pulled this
cap carefully over his bald head, and then made for the door.

At the threshold the strange child paused, and without looking at any
one present said: "I'll coom to your library," and went out.

Challis joined Lewes at the window, and they watched the boy make his
deliberate way along the garden path and up the lane towards the fields
beyond.

"You let him go out by himself?" asked Challis.

"He likes to be in the air, sir," replied Ellen Mary.

"I suppose you have to let him go his own way?"

"Oh! yes, sir."

"I will send the governess cart up for him to-morrow morning," said
Challis, "at ten o'clock. That is, of course, if you have no objection
to his coming.