f. The
son of science was perplexed. What should he do or say? All this was new
to him. That a young and pretty girl should appeal to him with such
earnestness disconcerted him, and he did not know how to act. A problem
in triangulation or knotty question in physics would have charmed him
and braced him up for any work. This was so new and so peculiar that he
said, "Don't cry, cousin," and repented it at once as a silly speech.

"I must. It does me good."

"Then I would."

Thereupon they both laughed heartily and felt better. He recovered his
wits at once.

"Do you think you really love him?"

The man of science is himself again.

"No, I don't."

"Then--well, it's hardly my place to say it."

"Then break the engagement. That's what you mean. I intend to do so;
but, Elmer, I wish you could be here with me."

"It would be impossible. Oh! I've an idea."

"Have you? There! I knew you would help me. You are so bright, Elmer,
and so kind----"

He nipped her enthusiasm in the bud.

"Do you think you could telegraph to me from your pocket?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"You know the letters now perfectly, and if you had your hand on an
armature, you could send off messages quickly?"

"Yes. You know I learned the alphabet in one day, and it's nearly a
week since you put up that line to my room. Think how we have talked
with it already. And you remember the tea table, when the Lawsons and
the Stebbens were here. Didn't I answer all your questions about Minna
Lawson while I was talking with her by tapping on the table with a
spoon?"

"Yes. So far so good; but now I'm going to try a most dangerous and
difficult piece of scientific work, and you must help me. My plan is for
you to keep in telegraphic communication with me while the interview
goes on. Then, if he is insulting or troublesome, you can call me."

"How bright of you, Elmer. If Lawrence had been half so good and kind
and bright--if he knew half as much--I might have loved him longer."

"Wait a bit, and I'll get the lines."

"May I go too?"

"Oh, yes; come."

The two went softly up the hall stairs, through the long entry to the L,
and into Elmer's room. They set the lamp on a table, and Elmer dragged
forth from the scientific confusion of the place a collection of
telegraphic apparatus of all kinds.

"There's the battery. That I'll keep here. There is the recording
instrument. That I'll keep here also. Now you want a small armature to
open