or to
achieve its simulacrum, in both men and women, has something of the
dignity which the centuries give to all antiques. However, at the time,
you will also be glad to know, I was far more interested in the prospect
of reenergizing my worn out mind and body. I was so mortally tired! And
if I had to live on, and no doubt with still much work to do in
distracted Europe----"

"But what did they _do_ to you?" cried Mrs. Tracy. "I'd have done it in
your place--yes, I would!" she said defiantly as she met the august
disgusted eye of Mrs. Vane. "I think Countess Zattiany was quite right.
What is science for, anyhow?"

"Go on! Go on!" murmured Mrs. Goodrich. She was too fat and comfortable
to have any desire to return to youth with its tiresome activities, but
all her old romantic affection for Mary Ogden had revived and she was
even more interested than curious.

"I am trying to! Well, I must tell you that the explanation of my
condition, as of others of my age, was that the endocrines----"

"The what?" The demand was simultaneous.

"The ductless glands."

"Oh," said Mrs. Prevost vaguely, "I've seen something----"

"It is all Greek to me," said Mrs. Vane, who felt that unreasoning
resentment common to the minor-informed for the major-informed. "You
promised to avoid technical terms."

Madame Zattiany explained in the simplest language she could command the
meaning and the function of the ductless glands. The more intelligent
among them looked gratified, for the painless achievement of fresh
knowledge is a pleasant thing. Madame Zattiany went on patiently: "These
glands in my case had undergone a natural process of exhaustion. In
women the slower functioning of the endocrines is coincident with the
climacteric, as they have been dependent for stimulation upon certain
ovarian cells. The idea involved is that the stimulation of these
exhausted cells would cause the other glands to function once more at
full strength and a certain rejuvenation ensue as a matter of course;
unless, of course, they had withered beyond the power of science. I was
a promising subject, for examination proved that my organs were healthy,
my arteries soft; and I was not yet sixty. Only experimentation could
reveal whether or not there was still any life left in the cells,
although I responded favorably to the preliminary tests. The upshot was
that I consented to the treatment----"

"Yes? Yes?" Every woman in the room now