r prime and bereaved, and one was nearly blind. Their
true balance of judgment was lost before they set to work on what you
call their investigations. The German was considered insane on the
'Fourth Dimension.' But what has this girl to do with your 'realm of
the dead' or my study of cancerous tissue? She belongs to the realm
of music and flowers. I beg you to remember that. You have no right to
throw over her the shadow of your religious perplexities any more than
I would have the right to lay before her my knowledge of parasitic
growths. Youth, and especially young womanhood, has its rights, and
one of them is to be blithe. You admit that you are losing faith; why
destroy hers? Your doubts and despairs should not touch her. But they
have. She is troubled and sad by reason of your attitude towards life,
and especially by your insistence upon the presence of death in the
world."

This was not precisely what Serviss had started out to say, but as he
went on a sense of being misled, a suspicion that he was playing into
the hands of the enemy, kept him from putting into words the strong
conviction which had seized him.

The preacher put his interlocked fingers behind his head, and, looking
at his visitor beneath lowered, contemptuous lids, replied: "My dear
sir, you don't know a thing of what you're talking about."

The note of patronization, the tone of superior wisdom, stung the
scientist. He felt in the clergyman's reply not merely opposition, but
insult. His very pose was an affront.

"I don't know your motives, that is perfectly true, but I can infer
them. It is due me to say that I am not in the habit of mixing in
where I am not wanted; but as Mr. and Mrs. Lambert have both asked my
advice, I shall give it. The girl is morbid and unhappy here, and I
shall tell them to send her away for a time. She has musical talent. I
shall advise them to allow her to go East to study."

The preacher's smile deepened into a sneer. "I think I understand
_your_ motives, and I shall oppose her going. What is there to
restrain a man who recognizes neither spirit nor God?"

Serviss was at first astounded, then hot at the grossness of this
insinuation, and his strong, brown hands clinched in the instinct to
punish--to retaliate--but his anger cooled to the level of words, and
he said: "This interview has more than convinced me of the justice of
Lambert's distrust of you. I shall see him again and repeat the
warning I have already g