n't feel that this disintegration theory altogether covers the
ground. There is no development of characteristics previously to be
found in Milly; on the contrary, the qualities of mind and character
which she exhibits when--when the change comes over her, are precisely
the opposite of those she exhibits in what I presume we ought to call
her normal state."

"There must be some reason for it, old chap, you know," returned Tims;
"and it seems to me that's the line you've got to move along, unless
you're an idiot and go in for devils or spiritualistic nonsense."

"I believe I've followed what you've been saying, Miss Timson," said
Lady Thomson, in her fullest tones; "and I can assure you I feel under
no necessity to become either a materialist or an idiot in consequence."

Ian spoke again.

"I don't profess to be scientific, but I do seem to see another possible
line, running parallel with yours, but not quite the same. It's evident
we can inherit faculties, characteristics, from our ancestors which
never become active in us; but we know they must have been present in us
in a quiescent state, because we can transmit them to children in whom
they become active. Mildred's father and mother, for example, are not
scholars, although her grandfather and great-grandfather were; yet in
one of her parents at least there must be a germ of the scholar's
faculty which has never been developed, because Mildred has inherited
it. Now why can't we develop all the faculties, the germs of which lie
within our borders? Perhaps because we have each only a certain amount
of what I'll call vital current. If the Nile could overflow the whole
desert it would all be fertilized, and perhaps if we had sufficient
vital force we could develop all the faculties whose germs we inherit.
Suppose by some accident, owing to a shock or strain, as you say, the
flow of this vital current of ours is stopped in the direction in which
it usually flows most strongly; its course is diverted and it fertilizes
tracts of our brain and nervous system which before have been lying
quiescent, sterile. If we lose the memory of our former lives, and if at
the same time hereditary faculties and tendencies, of the existence of
which we were unaware, suddenly become active in us, we are practically
new personalities. Then say the vital current resumes its old course; we
regain our memories, our old faculties, while the newly developed ones
sink again into quiescence. We ar