ul of a child is no more than the animating principle
of the ant or the ape (and this I cannot deny)--then of what avail is
human life? By what right do men bring other organisms into being
knowing that they will only flutter a little while in the sun like
butterflies and die as unavailingly as moths?

Up to this time he had accepted with a certain calm pitilessness the
most inexorable tenets of the evolutionists, and had defended them
with remorseless zeal; but on this fair spring morning, with love for
Viola stirring in his heart, he found himself far less disposed to
crush and confound. He acknowledged a growing sympathy with those who
mourn the tragic fact of death.

All that he had read concerning clairvoyance, telepathy, hypnotism,
and their allied subjects began to assume new significance and a
weightier importance. He was annoyed to find himself profoundly
concerned as to whether the power of "suggestion" was anything like as
coercive as many eminent men believed it to be, and in this awakened
interest he 'phoned Tolman (upon reaching his desk), asking him to
lunch with him at the club. "If there is anything in his philosophy I
want to know it," he said, as he turned to his desk.

He found no word from Lambert, and this troubled him. "If he does not
come to-day I must act alone," he concluded, and attempted to take up
his work, but found his brain preoccupied, his hand heavy.

Weissmann came in late, looking old and worn. He, too, had passed a
restless night. He nodded curtly to his assistant and set to work
without reference to the sitting or the psychic; and yet Morton was
very sure his chief's mind was as profoundly engaged as his own, and a
little later in the forenoon he stopped at his desk and said: "Lunch,
with me, doctor; I have asked Tolman, and I want to talk things over
with you both."

Weissmann consented in blunt abstraction, and the work proceeded quite
in the regular routine so far as he was concerned.

Tolman was the farthest remove from the traditional mesmerist in
appearance, being a brisk, blond man of exceeding neatness and taste
in dress. He wore the most fashionable clothing, his hair and beard
were in perfect order, and his hands were very beautiful. He was,
indeed, vain of his slender fingers and gesticulated overmuch. His
voice also was a little over-assertive, but his eyes were clear,
steady, and strong.

As they took seats in the cheerful sunlit dining-room of the Mid-day
Club