dern Don Quixote, and sneered at his
efforts to save animal suffering when he might have made a name that
would never be forgotten, if he pursued a more fruitful branch of
research.

Hadria remarked that Professor Theobald's last sentence had added the
crowning dignity to his eulogium.

He glanced at her, as if taking her measure.

"Fortescue," he called out, "I envy you your champion. You point, Mrs.
Temperley, to lofty altitudes. I, as a mere man, cannot pretend to scale
them."

Then he proceeded to bring down feminine loftiness with virile reason.

"In this world, where there are so many other evils to combat, one feels
that it is more rational to attack the more important first."

"Ah! there is nothing like an evil to bolster up an evil," cried
Professor Fortescue; "the argument never fails. Every abuse may find
shelter behind it. The slave trade, for instance; have we not white
slavery in our midst? How inconsistent to trouble about negroes till our
own people are truly free! Wife-beating? Sad; but then children are
often shamefully ill-used. Wait till _they_ are fully protected before
fussing about wives. Protect children? Foolish knight-errant, when you
ought to know that drunkenness is at the root of these crimes! Sweep
away _this_ curse, before thinking of the children. As for animals, how
can any rational person consider _their_ sufferings, when there are men,
women, and children with wrongs to be redressed?"

Professor Theobald laughed.

"My dear Fortescue, I knew you would have some ingenious excuse for your
amiable weaknesses."

"It is easier to find epithets than answers, Theobald," said the
Professor with a smile. "I confess I wonder at a man of your logical
power being taken in with this cheap argument, if argument it can be
called."

"It is my attachment to logic that makes me crave for consistency," said
Theobald, not over pleased at his friend's attack.

Professor Fortescue stared in surprise.

"But do you really mean to tell me that you think it logical to excuse
one abuse by pointing to another?"

"I think that while there are ill-used women and children, it is
certainly inconsistent to consider animals," said Theobald.

"It does not occur to you that the spirit in man that permits abuse of
power over animals is precisely the same devil-inspired spirit that
expresses itself in cruelty towards children. Ah," continued Professor
Fortescue, shaking his head, "then you really are one o