rther through the opening of
the door, until my head and shoulders were fairly inside the room, and
my eyes had convinced me that no living soul, sleeping or waking, was in
any part of it at that particular moment. Impelled by a fatal curiosity,
I entered immediately, and began to look about me with eager eyes.

I saw iron ladles, pans full of white sand, files with white metal left
glittering in their teeth, molds of plaster of Paris, bags containing
the same material in powder, a powerful machine with the name and use
of which I was theoretically not unacquainted, white metal in a
partially-fused state, bottles of aquafortis, dies scattered over a
dresser, crucibles, sandpaper, bars of metal, and edged tools in plenty,
of the strangest construction. I was not at all a scrupulous man, as
the reader knows by this time; but when I looked at these objects, and
thought of Alicia, I could not for the life of me help shuddering. There
was not the least doubt about it, even after the little I had seen:
the important chemical pursuits to which Doctor Dulcifer was devoting
himself, meant, in plain English and in one word--Coining.

Did Alicia know what I knew now, or did she only suspect it?

Whichever way I answered that question in my own mind, I could be no
longer at any loss for an explanation of her behavior in the meadow
by the stream, or of that unnaturally gloomy, downcast look which
overspread her face when her father's pursuits were the subject of
conversation. Did I falter in my resolution to marry her, now that I had
discovered what the obstacle was which had made mystery and wretchedness
between us? Certainly not. I was above all prejudices. I was the
least particular of mankind. I had no family affection in my way--and,
greatest fact of all, I was in love. Under those circumstances what
Rogue of any spirit would have faltered? After the first shock of the
discovery was over, my resolution to be Alicia's husband was settled
more firmly than ever.

There was a little round table in a corner of the room furthest from
the door, which I had not yet examined. A feverish longing to look at
everything within my reach--to penetrate to the innermost recesses of
the labyrinth in which I had involved myself--consumed me. I went to the
table, and saw upon it, ranged symmetrically side by side, four objects
which looked like thick rulers wrapped up in silver paper. I opened the
paper at the end of one of the rulers, and foun