plied Dr. Hillhouse, "but as much could
not be said of either of his grandfathers while living. Both drank
freely, and one of them died a confirmed drunkard."

"If the depraved appetite has not shown itself in the children, it will
hardly trouble the grandchildren," said Mr. Elliott. "Your fear is
groundless, doctor. If Ellis were my son, I should feel no particular
anxiety about him."

"If he were your son," replied Dr. Hillhouse, "I am not so sure about
your feeling no concern. Our personal interest in a thing is apt to
give it a new importance. But you are mistaken as to the breaking of
hereditary influences in the second generation. Often hereditary
peculiarities will show themselves in the third and fourth generation.
It is no uncommon thing to see the grandmother's red hair reappear in
her granddaughter, though her own child's hair was as black as a
raven's wing. A crooked toe, a wart, a malformation, an epileptic
tendency, a swart or fair complexion, may disappear in all the children
of a family, and show itself again in the grand-or great-grandchildren.
Mental and moral conditions reappear in like manner. In medical
literature we have many curious illustrations of this law of hereditary
transmission and its strange freaks and anomalies."

"They are among the curiosities of your literature," said Mr. Elliott,
speaking as though not inclined to give much weight to the doctor's
views--"the exceptional and abnormal things that come under
professional notice."

"The law of hereditary transmission," replied Dr. Hillhouse, "is as
certain in its operation as the law of gravity. You may disturb or
impede or temporarily suspend the law, but the moment you remove the
impediment the normal action goes on, and the result is sure. Like
produces like--that is the law. Always the cause is seen in the effect,
and its character, quality and good or evil tendencies are sure to have
a rebirth and a new life. It is under the action of this law that the
child is cursed by the parent with the evil and sensual things he has
made a part of himself through long indulgence."

There came at this moment a raid upon Mr. Elliott by three or four
ladies, members of his congregation, who surrounded him and Dr.
Hillhouse, and cut short their conversation.

Meanwhile, Ellis Whitford had already half forgotten his painful
interview with his mother in the pleasure of meeting Blanche Birtwell,
to whom he had recently become engaged. She was a