. He was still elaborating his theory, when the
President called him to order, ready for the motion to adjourn." Then
she harked back to her former theme. "You must see the laboratory here,
Mr. Brenton, if you care for such things. Girls? Oh, yes, of course;
but you'll soon get past regarding that as any handicap. In fact,
according to Professor Opdyke, it is one of the best equipped
laboratories in the country."

But Brenton's attention had wandered from the fact, caught by one of
the minor details which surrounded it.

"Professor Opdyke?" he echoed a little blankly.

"Yes. You have met him?"

"Not here. Not at all, in fact. The name is so uncommon that I am quite
sure. And yet--"

It was plain to Olive that Brenton was struggling with some
half-forgotten memory, striving to bring it forth to light, to link it
with the present; or, failing that, at least with something tangible in
his past life. And yet, the blurring of his memory was not too
inexplicable. Reed Opdyke still remembered Brenton clearly, still
regretted the apparent waste of some of his more brilliant
possibilities. Scott Brenton, on the other hand, had totally dismissed
Reed Opdyke from his mind. In the contact between the two of them, the
one had stepped up, the other down; and, as so often happens, the
truer, the more lasting picture is the one gained from the upper level.
Moreover, Brenton's later life, and most especially the summer which
had followed the ending of his association with Reed Opdyke, had been
so very strenuous as to obliterate by far the greater number of his
earlier contacts.

Then suddenly memory stirred in its sleep, stretched itself, awakened.

"Did Professor Opdyke have a son?" he asked, with a new eagerness which
was wholly alien to the one concerning his bit of autobiography.

Olive smiled at his phrasing.

"He did; I trust he still does," she answered; "though, with a mining
man, one never can be quite sure. Why? Did you know Reed?"

The colour came into Brenton's cheeks, as he blurted out the totally
forgotten truth.

"I adored him, all my last two years at college."

"Really? Yes, he is Professor Opdyke's son; and people who have seen
him lately tell me he is more adorable than ever."

"When have you seen him?" For something in Olive's accent made Brenton
realize that there was no necessity for any preliminary question
concerning the fact that she knew Opdyke well.

"Not since the year of his graduation. In