had made a great stir. The book which he had published at
Philadelphia, on the "Dissociation of Matter by Electric Action," had
aroused opposition throughout the whole scientific world. Monsieur
Stangerson was a Frenchman, but of American origin. Important matters
relating to a legacy had kept him for several years in the United
States, where he had continued the work begun by him in France, whither
he had returned in possession of a large fortune. This fortune was a
great boon to him; for, though he might have made millions of dollars
by exploiting two or three of his chemical discoveries relative to new
processes of dyeing, it was always repugnant to him to use for his
own private gain the wonderful gift of invention he had received from
nature. He considered he owed it to mankind, and all that his genius
brought into the world went, by this philosophical view of his duty,
into the public lap.

If he did not try to conceal his satisfaction at coming into possession
of this fortune, which enabled him to give himself up to his passion for
pure science, he had equally to rejoice, it seemed to him, for another
cause. Mademoiselle Stangerson was, at the time when her father returned
from America and bought the Glandier estate, twenty years of age. She
was exceedingly pretty, having at once the Parisian grace of her mother,
who had died in giving her birth, and all the splendour, all the
riches of the young American blood of her parental grandfather, William
Stangerson. A citizen of Philadelphia, William Stangerson had been
obliged to become naturalised in obedience to family exigencies at the
time of his marriage with a French lady, she who was to be the mother
of the illustrious Stangerson. In that way the professor's French
nationality is accounted for.

Twenty years of age, a charming blonde, with blue eyes, milk-white
complexion, and radiant with divine health, Mathilde Stangerson was one
of the most beautiful marriageable girls in either the old or the new
world. It was her father's duty, in spite of the inevitable pain which
a separation from her would cause him, to think of her marriage; and he
was fully prepared for it. Nevertheless, he buried himself and his child
at the Glandier at the moment when his friends were expecting him to
bring her out into society. Some of them expressed their astonishment,
and to their questions he answered: "It is my daughter's wish. I can
refuse her nothing. She has chosen the Glan