Pigments, with special reference to Urobilin."

"You are very kind, Professor Grey--you have always been very kind,"
said the other. "I approached Miss Grey upon the subject; she did not
say No."

"She said Yes, then?"

"No; she proposed to leave the matter open until my return from
Edinburgh. I go to-day, as you know, and I hope to commence my
research to-morrow."

"On the comparative anatomy of the vermiform appendix, by James M'Murdo
O'Brien," said the Professor, sonorously. "It is a glorious subject--a
subject which lies at the very root of evolutionary philosophy."

"Ah! she is the dearest girl," cried O'Brien, with a sudden little
spurt of Celtic enthusiasm--"she is the soul of truth and of honour."

"The vermiform appendix----" began the Professor.

"She is an angel from heaven," interrupted the other. "I fear that it
is my advocacy of scientific freedom in religious thought which stands
in my way with her."

"You must not truckle upon that point. You must be true to your
convictions; let there be no compromise there."

"My reason is true to agnosticism, and yet I am conscious of a void--a
vacuum. I had feelings at the old church at home between the scent of
the incense and the roll of the organ, such as I have never experienced
in the laboratory or the lecture-room."

"Sensuous-purely sensuous," said the Professor, rubbing his chin.
"Vague hereditary tendencies stirred into life by the stimulation of
the nasal and auditory nerves."

"Maybe so, maybe so," the younger man answered thoughtfully. "But this
was not what I wished to speak to you about. Before I enter your
family, your sister and you have a claim to know all that I can tell
you about my career. Of my worldly prospects I have already spoken to
you. There is only one point which I have omitted to mention. I am a
widower."

The Professor raised his eyebrows.

"This is news indeed," said he.

"I married shortly after my arrival in Australia. Miss Thurston was
her name. I met her in society. It was a most unhappy match."

Some painful emotion possessed him. His quick, expressive features
quivered, and his white hands tightened upon the arms of the chair.
The Professor turned away towards the window.

"You are the best judge," he remarked "but I should not think that it
was necessary to go into details."

"You have a right to know everything--you and Miss Grey. It is not a
matter on which I can well speak to her direct.