pursue, discoveries to make. This sum of
money is more than my life, it is my license to study and to think."

"Oh, but, Mr Simpson," interrupted the lady with a smile, "I
understand nothing of mathematics."

Mr Simpson checked himself. No, she did _not_ understand him. What was
his love of science or his hope of fame to her? What to her was any
one of the pains and pleasures that constituted _his_ existence?

"Besides," added the lady, "you are a bachelor, Mr Simpson. You have
no children. It can matter little"----

A grim smile played upon the features of the mathematician. He was
probably about to prove to her, that as children are destined to
become men, the interests of a man may not be an unworthy subject of
anxiety. However important a person a child may be, a man is something
more. But at this moment a servant entered, and announced Sir John
Steventon!

On perceiving Mr Simpson, that gentleman was about to retreat, and
with a look of something like distrust at Mrs Vincent, he said that
he would call again. "Nay, come in!" exclaimed the mathematician with
a clear voice. "Come in! The lady has not broken her word, nor by me
shall she be petitioned to do so. It is I who will quit this place.
You have succeeded, Sir John, in your revenge--you have succeeded, and
yet perhaps it is an imperfect success. You shall not rack the heart,
though you should starve the body. You think, perhaps, I shall pursue
you with objurgation or entreaty. You are mistaken. I leave you to the
enjoyment of your triumph, and to the peace which a blunted conscience
will, I know, bestow upon you."

Sir John muttered, in reply, that he could not debate matters of
business, but must refer him to his solicitor.

"Neither personally," continued Mr Simpson, "nor by your solicitor,
will you hear more of me. I shall forget you, Sir John. Whatever
sufferings you may inflict, you shall not fill my heart with
bitterness. Your memory shall not call forth a single curse from me.
Approach. Be friendly to this lady. Be mutually courteous, bland, and
affable--what other virtues do you know?"

He strode out of the room. His parting word was no idle boast. Sir
John heard of him and of his just claims no more; and the
brave-hearted man swept the memory of the villain from his soul. He
would not have it there.

The baronet soothed his conscience, if it ever gave him any
uneasiness, by the supposition that the aged mathematician had found
some pupils-