lamentable.'

'The mere fact of power is glorious. What shall you do?' asked Helen,
gazing thoughtfully at him as though to see in him all the far, new
possibilities.

'Well, I shall do as much as I can for my own science of physics--that
is rather glorious, I own. I shall be able to help the first-rate men to
get at all sorts of problems, perhaps. Yes, that is rather glorious.'

'And won't you build model villages and buy a castle and marry a
princess?'

'I don't like castles and I don't know anything about princesses,' said
Franklin, smiling. 'As for philanthropy, I'll let people wiser than I am
at it think out plans for doing good with the money. I'll devote myself
to doing what I know something about. I do know something about physics,
and I believe I can do something in that direction.'

'You take your good fortune very calmly, Mr. Kane,' Miss Grizel now
observed. 'How long have you known about it?'

'Well, I heard a week ago, and news has been piling in ever since. I'm
fairly snowed up with cables,' said Franklin. 'It's an old uncle of
mine--my mother's brother--who's left it to me. He always liked me; we
were always great friends. He went out west and built railroads and made
a fortune--honestly, too; the money is clean--as clean as you can get
it nowadays, that is to say. I couldn't take it if it wasn't. The only
thing to do with money that isn't clean is to hand it over to the people
it's been wrongfully taken from--to the nation, you know. It's a pity
that isn't done; it would be a lot better than building universities and
hospitals with it--though it's a problem; yes, I know it's a problem.'
Franklin seemed to-day rather oppressed with a sense of problems. He
gave this one up after a thoughtful survey of the fire, and went on: 'He
was a fine old fellow, my uncle; I didn't see him often, but we
sometimes wrote, and he used to like to hear how I was getting on in my
work. He didn't know much about it; I don't think he ever got over
thinking that atoms were a sort of bug,' Franklin smiled, unaware of his
listeners' surprise; 'but he seemed to like to hear, so I always told
him everything I'd time to write about. It made me sad to hear he'd
gone; but it was a fine life, yes, it was a mighty big, fine, useful
life,' said Franklin Kane, looking thoughtfully into the fire. And while
he looked, musing over his memories, Miss Buchanan and her niece
exchanged glances. 'This is a very odd creature, and a very ni