, who crowded through the arched door-way, showed that the
audience would be popular as well as scientific. Indeed, it became
evident to us as soon as we had taken our seats that a youthful and
even boyish spirit was abroad in the gallery and the back portions of
the hall. Looking behind me, I could see rows of faces of the familiar
medical student type. Apparently the great hospitals had each sent
down their contingent. The behavior of the audience at present was
good-humored, but mischievous. Scraps of popular songs were chorused
with an enthusiasm which was a strange prelude to a scientific lecture,
and there was already a tendency to personal chaff which promised a
jovial evening to others, however embarrassing it might be to the
recipients of these dubious honors.

Thus, when old Doctor Meldrum, with his well-known curly-brimmed
opera-hat, appeared upon the platform, there was such a universal query
of "Where DID you get that tile?" that he hurriedly removed it, and
concealed it furtively under his chair. When gouty Professor Wadley
limped down to his seat there were general affectionate inquiries from
all parts of the hall as to the exact state of his poor toe, which
caused him obvious embarrassment. The greatest demonstration of all,
however, was at the entrance of my new acquaintance, Professor
Challenger, when he passed down to take his place at the extreme end of
the front row of the platform. Such a yell of welcome broke forth when
his black beard first protruded round the corner that I began to
suspect Tarp Henry was right in his surmise, and that this assemblage
was there not merely for the sake of the lecture, but because it had
got rumored abroad that the famous Professor would take part in the
proceedings.

There was some sympathetic laughter on his entrance among the front
benches of well-dressed spectators, as though the demonstration of the
students in this instance was not unwelcome to them. That greeting
was, indeed, a frightful outburst of sound, the uproar of the carnivora
cage when the step of the bucket-bearing keeper is heard in the
distance. There was an offensive tone in it, perhaps, and yet in the
main it struck me as mere riotous outcry, the noisy reception of one
who amused and interested them, rather than of one they disliked or
despised. Challenger smiled with weary and tolerant contempt, as a
kindly man would meet the yapping of a litter of puppies. He sat
slowly down, ble