strangers here," he said, "for our loss to be
felt by any one. From all that I can gather, society in Duskydale will
be glad to hear of our departure. I beg your pardon, Alicia--I ought to
have said _my_ departure."

Her name was Alicia! I declare it was a luxury to me to hear it--the
name was so appropriate, so suggestive of the grace and dignity of her
beauty.

I turned toward her when the doctor had done. She looked more gloomily
than before. I protested against the doctor's account of himself.
He laughed again, with a quick distrustful lo ok, this time, at his
daughter.

"If you were to mention my name among your respectable inhabitants," he
went on, with a strong, sneering emphasis on the word respectable, "they
would most likely purse up their lips and look grave at it. Since I gave
up practice as a physician, I have engaged in chemical investigations
on a large scale, destined I hope, to lead to some important public
results. Until I arrive at these, I am necessarily obliged, in my
own interests, to keep my experiments secret, and to impose similar
discretion on the workmen whom I employ. This unavoidable appearance
of mystery, and the strictly retired life which my studies compel me to
lead, offend the narrow-minded people in my part of the county, close
to Barkingham; and the unpopularity of my pursuits has followed me here.
The general opinion, I believe, is, that I am seeking by unholy arts for
the philosopher's stone. Plain man, as you see me, I find myself getting
quite the reputation of a Doctor Faustus in the popular mind. Even
educated people in this very place shake their heads and pity my
daughter there for living with an alchemical parent, within easy
smelling-distance of an explosive laboratory. Excessively absurd, is it
not?"

It might have been excessively absurd, but the lovely Alicia sat with
her eyes on her work, looking as if it were excessively sad, and not
giving her father the faintest answering smile when he glanced toward
her and laughed, as he said his last words. I could not at all tell
what to make of it. The doctor talked of the social consequences of his
chemical inquiries as if he were living in the middle ages. However,
I was far too anxious to see the charming brown eyes again to ask
questions which would be sure to keep them cast down. So I changed the
topic to chemistry in general; and, to the doctor's evident astonishment
and pleasure, told him of my own early studies in t