listening with an
instinctive premonition of what was coming,--ten thousand mothers and
grandmothers, and great-grandmothers, and so on, had passed through it
all in preceding generations, until time readied backwards to the sturdy
savage who asked no questions of any kind, but knocked down the primeval
great-grandmother of all, and carried her off to his hole in the rock,
or into the tree where he had made his nest. Why should not the coming
question announce itself by stirring in the pulses, and thrilling in the
nerves, of the descendant of all these grandmothers?

She was leaning imperceptibly towards him, drawn by the mere blind
elemental force, as the plummet was attracted to the side of
Schehallien. Her lips were parted, and she breathed a little faster than
so healthy a girl ought to breathe in a state of repose. The steady
nerves of William Murray Bradshaw felt unwonted thrills and tremors
tingling through them, as he came nearer and nearer the few simple words
with which he was to make Myrtle Hazard the mistress of his destiny. His
tones were becoming lower and more serious; there were slight breaks
once or twice in the conversation; Myrtle had cast down her eyes.

"There is but one word more to add," he murmured softly, as he bent
towards her--

A grave voice interrupted him. "Excuse me, Mr. Bradshaw," said Master
Byles Gridley, "I wish to present a young gentleman to my friend here. I
promised to show him the most charming young person I have the honor to
be acquainted with, and I must redeem my pledge. Miss Hazard, I have
the pleasure of introducing to your acquaintance my distinguished young
friend, Mr. Clement Lindsay."

* * * * *

From "Currents and Counter Currents."

=_214._= MECHANISM OF VITAL ACTION.

But if the student of nature and the student of divinity can once agree
that all the forces of the universe, as well as all its power,
are immediately dependent upon its Creator,--that He is not only
omni_potent_ but omni_movent_,--we have no longer any fear of nebular
theories, or doctrines of equivocal generation, or of progressive
development....

We begin then by examining the general rules which the Creator seems
to have prescribed to His own operations. We ask, in the first place,
whether He is wont, so far as we know, to employ a great multitude
of materials, patterns, and forces, or whether He has seen fit to
accomplish many different ends by the employmen