her
husband's attainments without in the least understanding them, and she
very naturally held an unshakable belief that no quite ordinary woman,
as she called herself, had ever been miraculously blessed with such a
daughter as she had.

Nitocris was just beginning her second cup of tea when the door opened
and her father's foeman in the arena of Science came in. He was the very
antithesis of Professor Marmion; a trifle below middle height,
square-shouldered and strongly built, with thick, iron-grey hair, and
somewhat heavy features which would have been almost commonplace but for
the broad, square forehead above them, and the brilliant steel-grey
eyes which glittered restlessly under the thick brows, and also a
certain sensitiveness about the nostrils and lips which seemed curiously
out of keeping with the strength of the lower jaw. His whole being
suggested a combination of restless energy and inflexible determination.
If he had not been one of America's greatest scientists, he would
probably have been one of her most ruthless and despotic Dollar Lords.

"Ah, Miss Marmion, good afternoon! Pleased to see you," he said
heartily, as Nitocris got up and held out her hand. "Very kind of you to
look us up so soon. How's the Professor? Well, I hope. I see he's
scheduled for a lecture before the Royal Society. He's got something
startling to tell us about, I hope. It's some time since we had anything
of a scientific scrap between us."

"And therefore," said Nitocris, as she took his hand, "I suppose you are
just dying for another one."

"Well, not quite dying," laughed the Professor. "Don't look half dead,
do I? Just curious, that's all. You can't give me any idea of the
subject, I suppose?"

"I could, Professor," she replied, with a malicious twinkle in her eye,
because she had already had a talk with her father on the altered title
of the lecture, "but if I did, you know, I should only, as we say in
England, be spoiling sport. However, I don't think I shall be playing
traitor if I tell you to prepare for a little surprise."

Professor van Huysman's manner changed instantly, and the warrior soul
of the scientist was in arms.

"Oh yes! A surprise, eh?" he said, with something between a snort and a
snarl in his voice. "Then I guess----"

"Poppa, sit down and have some tea," said his daughter, quietly but
firmly.

He sat down without a word, took his cup of tea and a slice of bread and
butter; listened in silence as