hest?"

"There is uncle's old one," said Vane.

"Exactly. Then, why don't you keep them in the drawers?--Humph!
Galvanic battery!"

"Yes; it was uncle's."

"And he gives it to you to play with, eh?"

Vane coloured again.

"I was trying to perform some experiments with it."

"Oh, I see. Well, it's a very good one; take care of it. Little
chemistry, too, eh?"

"Yes: uncle shows me sometimes how to perform experiments."

"But he does not show you how to be neat and orderly."

"Oh, this is only a place to amuse oneself in!" said Vane.

"Exactly, but you can get ten times the amusement out of a shop where
everything is in its place and there's a place for everything. Now,
suppose I wanted to perform some simple experiment, say, to show what
convection is, with water, retort and spirit lamp?"

"Convection?" said Vane, thoughtfully, as if he were searching in his
mind for the meaning of a word he had forgotten.

"Yes," said the visitor, smiling. "Surely you know what convection is."

"I've forgotten," said Vane, shaking his head. "I knew once."

"Then you have not forgotten. You've got it somewhere packed away.
Head's untidy, perhaps, as your laboratory."

"I know," cried Vane--"convection: it has to do with water expanding and
rising when it is hot and descending when it is cold."

"Of course it has," said the visitor, laughing, "why you were lecturing
me just now on the art of heating greenhouses by hot-water circulating
through pipes; well, what makes it circulate?"

"The heat."

"Of course, by the law of convection."

Vane rubbed one ear.

"You had not thought of that?"

"No."

"Ah, well, you will not forget it again. But, as I was saying--suppose
I wanted to try and perform a simple experiment to prove, on a small
scale, that the pipes you are designing would heat. I cannot see the
things I want, and I'll be bound to say you have them somewhere here."

"Oh, yes: I've got them all somewhere."

"Exactly. Take my advice, then, and be a little orderly. I don't mean
be a slave to order. You understand?"

"Oh, yes," said Vane, annoyed, but at the same time pleased, for he felt
that the visitor's remarks were just.

"Humph! You have rather an inventive turn then, eh?"

"Oh, no," cried Vane, disclaiming so grand a term, "I only try to make a
few things here sometimes on wet days."

"Pretty often, seemingly," said the visitor, peering here and there.
"Silk-winding, collecting. Wh