asing conviction, the opinion of Septimus May, as
uttered in a volume of confident words. He became blind to the physical
danger. He even showed a measure of annoyance at Mary's obstinate
entreaties. She strove to calm him, and told him he was not himself--an
assertion that, by his inner consciousness of its truth, seemed to
incense Sir Walter.

He begged her to be silent, and declared that her remarks savored of
irreverence. Startled and bewildered by such a criticism, the woman
was indeed silent for some time, while her father-in-law flowed on and
uttered his conviction. Yet not all his intensity and asseverations
could justify such extravagant assertion. At another time they might
even have amused Mary; but in sight of the fact that her father was
yielding, and that the end of the argument would mean the clergyman
in the Grey Room, she could win nothing but frantic anxiety from the
situation. Sir Walter was broken; he had lost his hold on reality,
and she realized that. His unsettled intelligence had gone over to the
opposition, and there was none, as it seemed, to argue on her side.

Septimus May had acted like a dangerous drug on Sir Walter; he appeared
to be intoxicated in some degree. But only in mind, not in manner. He
argued for his new attitude, and he was not as excited as the priest,
but maintained his usual level tones.

"I agreed with Mannering and Henry yesterday, as you know, Mary," he
said, "and at my desire Mr. May desisted from his wish. We see how
mistaken I was, how right he must have been. I have thought it out this
afternoon, calmly and logically. These unfortunate young men have died
without a reason, for be sure no explanation of Peter Hardcastle's death
will be forthcoming though the whole College of Surgeons examines his
corpse. Then we must admit that life has been snatched out of these
bodies by some force of which we have no conception. Were it natural,
science would have discovered a reason for death; but it could not,
because their lives flowed away as water out of a bottle, leaving the
bottle unchanged in every particular. But life does not desert its
physical habitation on these terms. It cannot quit a healthy, human body
neither ruined nor rent. You must be honest with yourself, my child,
as well as with your father-in-law and me. A physical cause being
absolutely ruled out, what remains? To-night I emphatically support Mr.
May, and my conscience, long in terrible concern, is now at