as the one human element in the establishment, Jacques, and his
familiarity was not offensive.

As for her employer, Esther decided that she could live at close
quarters with him for a year and know him no better than she did now.
At the end of a week she regarded him as an unknown quantity. A man of
one idea, extraordinarily concentrated, methodical, abstracted, without
friends, no outside interests whatever. That is all she could gather.
Silent, yet hardly secretive, he merely gave her the impression that he
had nothing he wished to impart. He was not curious about other
people, why should they want to know about him? Not by any stretch of
imagination could she connect him with a human emotion. He never asked
her a question about herself or her antecedents, and only once did he
volunteer any information in regard to himself, and then it seemed as
though for a moment he was thinking aloud. He referred absent-mindedly
to a time when he lived in Algeria, mentioning the fact that for almost
two years he was able to experiment without interruption.

"I had a bit of money," he remarked, "a windfall..."

"I suppose someone died and left you a legacy," suggested Esther,
washing test-tubes at the basin in the corner.

He appeared to have forgotten the subject, but presently he roused
himself to reply:

"Eh? What was that?" he murmured vaguely, holding a tube up to the
light. "There is a sediment here, certainly.... Yes, that was it. A
legacy. I lived on it for two years, then I had to go back to the
grind again."

Esther was curious to know more about the research which so completely
absorbed him, but he was not eager to talk about it. Still, by
watching him and prodding him occasionally with direct questions, she
discovered what she wanted to know. Two of his serums were in general
use; she had heard of them. Indeed, she knew enough to be impressed.
This was a valuable man of science; why, he might yet be awarded the
Nobel prize; his discoveries were quite important enough to merit it.
Yet she suspected that the idea of fame had never entered his head, he
worked for the love of it. He was engaged now in trying to find
anti-toxins for certain deadly diseases, tetanus for one. When she
thought of the extent to which his efforts might benefit humanity, she
felt inclined to forget the man's repellent personality in the dignity
of his accomplishments.

As for what she had to do, she found it neither very di