"There is certainly something rather stern, or even ruthless, about
the set of the face and the firm ending of the lips," I admitted,
reluctantly.

"That is why God gave men moustaches," she mused, in a low voice; "to
hide the cruel corners of their mouths."

"Not ALWAYS cruel," I cried.

"Sometimes cruel, sometimes cunning, sometimes sensuous; but nine times
out of ten best masked by moustaches."

"You have a bad opinion of our sex!" I exclaimed.

"Providence knew best," she answered. "IT gave you moustaches. That was
in order that we women might be spared from always seeing you as you
are. Besides, I said 'Nine times out of ten.' There are exceptions--SUCH
exceptions!"

On second thought, I did not feel sure that I could quarrel with her
estimate.

The experiment was that time once more successful. Sebastian woke up
from the comatose state after eight hours, not quite as fresh as Hilda
Wade, perhaps, but still tolerably alive; less alert, however, and
complaining of dull headache. He was not hungry. Hilda Wade shook her
head at that. "It will be of use only in a very few cases," she said to
me, regretfully; "and those few will need to be carefully picked by
an acute observer. I see resistance to the coma is, even more than
I thought, a matter of temperament. Why, so impassioned a man as
the Professor himself cannot entirely recover. With more sluggish
temperaments, we shall have deeper difficulty."

"Would you call him impassioned?" I asked. "Most people think him so
cold and stern."

She shook her head. "He is a snow-capped volcano!" she answered. "The
fires of his life burn bright below. The exterior alone is cold and
placid."

However, starting from that time, Sebastian began a course of
experiments on patients, giving infinitesimal doses at first, and
venturing slowly on somewhat larger quantities. But only in his own case
and Hilda's could the result be called quite satisfactory. One dull
and heavy, drink-sodden navvy, to whom he administered no more than
one-tenth of a grain, was drowsy for a week, and listless long after;
while a fat washerwoman from West Ham, who took only two-tenths, fell so
fast asleep, and snored so stertorously, that we feared she was going
to doze off into eternity, after the fashion of the rabbits. Mothers of
large families, we noted, stood the drug very ill; on pale young girls
of the consumptive tendency its effect was not marked; but only
a patient here and there, of exc