e
silk dresses, too, and a pair of twins, and nine lovely dolls.

[_Chokes with tears._

_Dr. Herd._ (_as if to lead her away from the subject_). Yes, yes, yes,
that must have been a heavy blow for you, my poor ALINE. I can understand
that your spirits can never be really high again. And then for poor Master
Builder SOLNESS to be so taken up with that Miss WANGEL as he was--that,
too, was so wretched for you. To see him topple off the tower, as he did
that day ten years ago----

_Mrs. Herd._ Yes, that too, HAUSTUS. But I did not mind it so much--it all
seemed so perfectly natural in both of them.

_Dr. Herd._ Natural! For a girl of twenty-three to taunt a middle-aged
architect, whom she knew to be constitutionally liable to giddiness, never
to let him have any peace till he had climbed a spire as dizzy as
himself--and all for the fun of seeing him fall off--how in the world----!

_Mrs. Herd._ (_laying the table for supper with dried fish and punch_). The
younger generation have a keener sense of humour than we elder ones,
HAUSTUS, and perhaps, after all, she was only a perplexing sort of
allegory.

_Dr. Herd._ Yes, that would explain her to some extent, no doubt. But how
_he_ could be such an old fool!

_Mrs. Herd._ That Miss WANGEL was a strangely fascinating type of girl.
Why, even I myself----

_Dr. Herd._ (_sits down and takes some fish_). Fascinating? Well, goodness
knows, I couldn't see _that_ at all. (_Seriously._) Has it never struck
you, ALINE, that elderly Norwegians are so deucedly impressionable--mere
bundles of overstrained nerves, hypersensitive ganglia. Except, of course,
the Medical Profession.

_Mrs. Herd._ Yes, of course; those in that profession are not so inclined
to gangle. And when one has succeeded by such a stroke of luck as you
have----

_Dr. Herd._ (_drinks a glass of punch_). You're right enough there. If I
had not been called in to prescribe for Dr. RYVAL, who used to have the
leading practice here, I should never have stepped so wonderfully into his
shoes as I did. (_Changes to a tone of quiet chuckling merriment._) Let me
tell you a funny story, ALINE; it sounds a ludicrous thing--but all my good
fortune here was based upon a simple little pill. For if Dr. RYVAL had
never taken it----

_Mrs. Herd._ (_anxiously_). Then you _do_ think it was the pill that caused
him to----?

_Dr. Herd._ On the contrary; I am perfectly sure the pill had nothing
whatever to do with it--the