nd learn how far my proposals meet
with her acquiescence. But you frown, Ada!"

His sister started, and made an effort to conceal her expression of
annoyance. She even stammered out some few words of congratulation,
but a vacant look had come into her brother's eyes, and he was
evidently not listening to her.

"I am sure, John, that I wish you the happiness which you deserve. If
I hesitated at all, it is because I know how much is at stake, and
because the thing is so sudden, so unexpected." Her thin white hand
stole up to the black cross upon her bosom. "These are moments when we
need guidance, John. If I could persuade you to turn to spiritual----"

The Professor waved the suggestion away with a deprecating hand.

"It is useless to reopen that question," he said. "We cannot argue
upon it. You assume more than I can grant. I am forced to dispute
your premises. We have no common basis."

His sister sighed.

"You have no faith," she said.

"I have faith in those great evolutionary forces which are leading the
human race to some unknown but elevated goal."

"You believe in nothing."

"On the contrary, my dear Ada, I believe in the differentiation of
protoplasm."

She shook her head sadly. It was the one subject upon which she
ventured to dispute her brother's infallibility.

"This is rather beside the question," remarked the Professor, folding
up his napkin. "If I am not mistaken, there is some possibility of
another matrimonial event occurring in the family. Eh, Ada? What!"

His small eyes glittered with sly facetiousness as he shot a twinkle at
his sister. She sat very stiff, and traced patterns upon the cloth
with the sugar-tongs.

"Dr. James M'Murdo O'Brien----" said the Professor, sonorously.

"Don't, John, don't!" cried Miss Ainslie Grey.

"Dr. James M'Murdo O'Brien," continued her brother inexorably, "is a
man who has already made his mark upon the science of the day. He is
my first and my most distinguished pupil. I assure you, Ada, that his
'Remarks upon the Bile-Pigments, with special reference to Urobilin,'
is likely to live as a classic. It is not too much to say that he has
revolutionised our views about urobilin."

He paused, but his sister sat silent, with bent head and flushed
cheeks. The little ebony cross rose and fell with her hurried
breathings.

"Dr. James M'Murdo O'Brien has, as you know, the offer of the
physiological chair at Melbourne. He has been in Austr