iction, that this truth
will endure, difficult as it might be to find reasons for it, or proofs
which would incontestably establish to the reason its indisputable
existence?"

"I might take that as a compliment to my essay," he answered, "although
coming from a woman's mouth, it cannot of course be understood in that
sense. Among scientific men, an investigation is thought the more
worthy of credence, the fewer traces it bears that its author set about
the task with a desire to find a certain result, or with even a
previously formed conviction. In my department, especially, much
greater progress would have been made, if even in the minds of its
masters passion and prejudice had not dimmed the pure mirror of
experience and clearness of thought."

"Greater progress!" cried the excited lady, letting both hands fall
into her lap in sudden horror. "But for Heaven's sake, what progress
can be made, to what can you wish to turn your attention after you have
so successfully reached absolute nothingness?"

"And suppose I expected to prove," he answered smiling, "that this
nothingness is just as fruitful as the other nothingness, from which,
as pious men tell us, God created the world? But I'll not begin to
philosophize here. Even if I could hope, in a short conversation, to
make you understand that to which I have devoted the labor of a
life, I should still prefer to keep silence. You're in harmony with
yourself--what more can you desire? I, whose wants are so different, am
also at peace with myself. Is it not better to rest satisfied with
that, each respecting the other's mode of thought and feeling?
Wherefore drag to light the differences about which we can never agree,
instead of rejoicing over what we possess in common? It's so easy to
dispute, and so difficult to become reconciled again."

"You think me intolerant," she replied eagerly, while a faint color
tinged her pretty, delicate face. "But my Creator knows I am not. I
confidentially believe that in our heavenly father's house there are
many mansions. I honor every true, genuine conviction, even if ever so
widely different from mine. My best friend, Leah's mother, was a
jewess. My daily visitor, the Herr Candidat--"

"Herr Lorinser?" Edwin dryly interrupted. "Ah! yes, now I understand."

"What?"

"It's a matter of very little consequence; I know the people with whom
I'm dealing. There are persons who take special delight in denouncing
others, of course for the