the refuse-destructor hours ago. Death is a confession of
failure, a sure proof of a blunder somewhere, and therefore ordinary
politeness tells us that we should take as little notice of it as
possible."

"Who will take his place?" I asked.

"That has already been decided by the Inner Office."

"You had no ambitions in that direction?"

"None whatever. There is no reason why in addition to my present
appointment I should not now be holding a post--and a highly placed
post--in the Inner Office. It is merely a want of appreciation and, I am
afraid I must add, a certain meanness in the minds of some first-class
beings which keeps me a humble professor. However, merit will tell; I
can trust to that."

The boasted civilisation of Thule had at any rate not extirpated human
vanity. The vanity of the Professor was colossal. No compliment was too
gross for him to accept with avidity. His nature was indeed very curious
and difficult for a simple man like myself to comprehend. In spite of
the casual way in which he spoke of death, I was convinced that he lived
in hourly dread of it. In spite of the fact that he spoke of every known
form of religion as an idle superstition, and professed the most
absolute materialism, I think he was unable to disbelieve entirely in
the future life. His nerves were not good. Sometimes in the middle of
the night he would tap at the door of the cupboard where I slept and ask
me to come out and speak to him. There was always some excuse, and I
think the excuse was never the true one. The fact of the case is that
the extreme solitude in which most of these first-class beings lived had
its inevitable effect upon them. They had, as the Professor observed, no
entertainments. They had really no social gatherings. Occasionally one
friend would pay a brief and formal visit to another friend, but there
was nothing beyond that, When they went abroad for exercise or to bask
in the sun, they as a rule passed one another unnoticed.

I was myself the reason why for a time the number of visitors to the
Professor's house increased considerably. People came to see me, and he
produced me and lectured upon me in terms which were sufficiently
humiliating.

"Observe," he would say, "the ludicrous smallness of the head and the
short and attenuated forelegs. In this respect one might almost believe
him to be a second-class being. He is probably, however, a still lower
type. The skin is whiter from deficient pigment