in his undershirt, inhaling inspiration
and the aroma of whale-oil, soap, and carbolic solutions.

Neither Kathleen nor his sister being present to limit his operations,
the entire house was becoming a vast mess. Living-rooms, library, halls,
billiard-room, were obstructed with "scientific" paraphernalia; hundreds
of glass fruit jars, filled with earth containing the whitish, globular
eggs of the Rose-beetle, encumbered mantel and furniture; glass
aquariums half full of earth, sod, and youthful larvae of the same sinful
beetle lent pleasing variety to the monotony of Scott's interior
decorative effects. Microscopes, phials, shallow trays bristling with
sprouting seeds, watering-cans, note-books, buckets of tepid water, jars
brimming with chemical solutions, blockaded the legitimate and natural
runways of chamber-maid, parlour-maid, and housekeeper; a loud scream
now and then punctured the scientific silence, recording the Hibernian
discovery of some large, green caterpillar travelling casually somewhere
in the house.

"Mr. Seagrave, sir," stammered Lang, the second man, perspiring horror,
"your bedroom is full of humming birds and bats, sir, and I can't stand
it no more!"

But it was only a wholesale hatching of huge hawk-moths that came
whizzing around Lang when he turned on the electric lights; and which,
escaping, swarmed throughout the house, filling it with their loud,
feathery humming, and the shrieks of Milesian domestics.

And it was into these lively household conditions that Kathleen and
Geraldine unexpectedly arrived from the Berkshires, worn out with their
round of fashionable visits, anxious for the quiet and comfort that is
supposed to be found only under one's own roof-tree. This is what they
found:

In Geraldine's bath-tub a colony of water-lilies were attempting to take
root for the benefit of several species of water-beetles. The formidable
larvae of dragon-flies occupied Kathleen's bath; turtles peered at them
from vantage points under the modern plumbing; an enormous frog regarded
Kathleen solemnly from the wet, tiled floor. "Oh, dear," she said as
Scott greeted her rapturously, "have I got to move all these horrid
creatures?"

"For Heaven's sake don't touch a thing," protested Scott, welcoming his
sister with a perfunctory kiss; "I'll find places for them in a minute."

"How _could_ you, Scott!" exclaimed Geraldine, backing hastily away
from a branch of green leaves on which several gigantic