bedience to the very sharp and
loud voice which invited him to "walk in." The ingenious gentleman had
breakfasted. The tea things were on a stool at his side. He wore his
nightcap, and he was busy in examining a crimson liquid, which he held
in a glass close to his eyes. "That man was murdered, Allcraft!"
exclaimed Mr Planner after the briefest possible salutation. "Murdered,
as I am a living Christian!"

"What man?" asked Allcraft.

"Him they hanged last week for poisoning his father. What was the
evidence? Why, when they opened the body, they found a grain or two of
arsenic. Hang a man upon that! A pretty state of things--look here,
sir--look here!"--and he pointed triumphantly to his crimson liquid.

"What is that, Mr Planner?" inquired the visitor.

"What? My blood, sir. I opened a vein the very day they hanged him. I
suspected it all along, and there it is. There is more arsenic there,
sir, than they found in the entire carcass of that man. Arsenic! Why,
it's a prime ingredient in the blood. This it is to live in the clouds.
Talk of dark ages--when shall we get light?"

"I was not aware, Mr Planner,"----

"Of course you were not. How should you be? It is the interest of the
ruling powers to darken the intellect of society. Why am I kept down?
Why don't I prosper? Why don't my works sell? Ah, Allcraft--put that
small pamphlet in your pocket--there it is--under the model--take care
what you are about--don't break it--there, that's right! What is it
called?"

"Popular delusions."

"Ah, true enough!--put it into your pocket and read it. If Pitt could be
alive to read it!---- Well, never mind! I say, Allcraft, how does that
back room flue get on--any smoke now?"

"None."

"No. I should think not. Michael, I must say it, though the old
gentleman is dead, he was one of the hardest fellows to move I ever met.
He would have been smoke-dried--suffocated, years ago, if it hadn't been
for me. I was the first man that ever sent smoke up that chimney. Nobody
could do it, sir. A fellow came from London, tried, and failed."

"It is a pity, Mr Planner, that, with abilities like yours, you have not
been more successful in life. Pardon me if I say that success would have
made you a quieter and a happier man."

"Ah, Michael, so your father used to say! Well, I don't know--people are
such fools. They will not think for themselves, and they are ready to
crush any one who offers to think for them. It has ever been so. Men