he paused and, with his bushy eyebrows twitching, looked
steadily at Malling.

"I leave it to you," he said. "Take your own line. But don't forget that,
if there's anything in it, development will take place in the link. The
link will be a center of combat. The link will be an interesting field
for study."

"The link?" said Malling, interrogatively.

"Goodness gracious me! Her ladyship! Her ladyship!" cried out the
professor. "What are you about, Malling?"

And he refused to say another word on the matter till Malling, after much
more conversation on other topics, got up to go. Then, accompanying him
to the front door, the professor said:

"You know _I_ think it's probably all great nonsense."

"What?"

"Your two black-coated friends. You bustle along at such a pace.
Remember, I have made more experiments than you have, and I have never
come upon an exactly similar case. I don't know whether such a thing
can be. No more do you--you've guessed. Now, guessing is not at all
scientific. At the same time you've proved you can be patient. If there
is anything in this it's profoundly interesting, of course."

"Then you advise me--?"

"If in doubt, study Lady Sophia. Good night."

As Malling went away into the darkness he heard the professor snapping
out to himself, as he stood before his house bareheaded:

"Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings! _Tres bien!_ But--reverend
gentlemen of St. Joseph's! I shall have to look for telergic power in my
acquaintance Randall Cantuar, when I want it! By Jove!"

"If in doubt, study Lady Sophia." As Malling thought over these
parting words, he realized their wisdom and wondered at his own
short-sightedness.

He had sent his cards to Onslow Gardens after the luncheon with the
Hardings. He wished now he had called and asked for Lady Sophia. But
doubtless he would have an opportunity of being with her again. If she
did not offer him one, he would make one for himself.

He longed to see her with Henry Chichester.

During the days that elapsed before "Hornton Street, Wednesday" he
considered a certain matter with sedulous care. His interview with
Stepton had not been fruitless. Stepton always made an effect on his
mind. Casual and jerky though his manner was, obstinate as were his
silences at certain moments, fragmentary as was his speech, he had a
way of darting at the essential that set him apart from most men. Malling
remembered a horrible thing he had once seen in the