.

"I am sure," she cried, controlling herself with difficulty and
catching at a straw, as it were, "that you gentlemen, even if you have
saved my father, are no friends of either his or mine. You have merely
come here in response to Dr. Burnham, and he came because Jane lost
her head in the excitement and forgot that Dr. Scott is now our
physician."

"But Dr. Scott could not have been found in time, madame," interposed
Dr. Burnham with evident triumph.

She ignored the remark and continued to hold the door open.

"Now leave us," she implored, "you, Dr. Burnham, you, Mr. Prescott,
you, Professor Kennedy, and your friend Mr. Jameson, whoever you may
be."

She was now cold and calm. In the bewildering change of events we had
forgotten the wan figure on the bed still gasping for the breath of
life. I could not help wondering at the woman's apparent lack of
gratitude, and a thought flashed over my mind. Had the affair come to
a contest between various parties fighting by fair means or foul for
the old man's money--Scott and Mrs. Martin perhaps against Prescott
and Dr. Burnham.

No one moved. We seemed to be waiting on Kennedy. Prescott and Mrs.
Martin were now glaring at each other implacably.

The old man moved restlessly on the bed, and over my shoulder I could
hear him gasp faintly, "Where's Grace? Send for Grace."

Mrs. Martin paid no attention, seemed not to hear, but stood facing
us imperiously as if waiting for us to obey her orders and leave the
house. Burnham moved toward the door, but Prescott stood his ground
with a peculiar air of defiance. Then he took my arm and started
rather precipitately, I thought, to leave.

"Come, come," said somebody behind us, "enough of the dramatics."

It was Kennedy, who had been bending down, listening to the muttering
of the old man.

"Look at those eyes of Mr. Haswell," he said. "What color are they?"

We looked. They were blue.

"Down in the parlor," continued Kennedy leisurely, "you will find a
portrait of the long deceased Mrs. Haswell. If you will examine that
painting you will see that her eyes are also a peculiarly limpid blue.
No couple with blue eyes ever had a black-eyed child. At least, if
this is such a case, the Carnegie Institution investigators would
be glad to hear of it, for it is contrary to all that they have
discovered on the subject after years of study of eugenics. Dark-eyed
couples may have light-eyed children, but the reverse, never. What d