hasty querulous way, began to chide in the
white-gowned choristers, who soon appeared
simultaneously in different parts of the close,
like a scattered flock of pigeons reuniting at
feeding-time

The verger, armed with a badge of power,
something resembling an apothecary's pestle,
preceded the precentor to his seat, and after that
dignitary, who carried his square Oxford trencher-
cap in his hand, came the rosy-faced boys two and
two, with difficulty restraining their mischief
before the dreaded eyes of the organist, who was
watching them malignly from the oaken
battlements of the organ-loft.

Just as the bell ceased, and the great clock
vibrated out the hour, with the tremulous
solemnity of pompous age; just as the counter,
tenor, and bass, with looks of mutual defiance,
had ruffled themselves into their places, the
dean entered, and strode to his canopied seat.
There was a strange brightness about his eyes,
a hot feverish hectic flush upon his cheeks.
In his every gesture and look, and even in the
tones of his deep voice, there was a perceptible
triumph that did not escape his congregation.

"Do you dine with the dean to-morrow?" said
the precentor to the eldest canon, as they
strolled homewards together. "The dean has
had great triumphs in London. His majesty
has expressed his approbation of his experiments,
and Oxford has granted him special
honours."

"It is the most wonderful discovery of the
age," replied the canon. "Yes, I'm glad to say
I shall meet you to-morrow at our dean's
hospitable table."

"Are the great experiments to be made
tomorrow?"

"O, of course. Why, I wouldn't miss them
for twenty pounds."

"Did he meet with any opposition among
London scientific men, do you know?"

"Well, only from one, Mr. Harding, the
secrefary of the Royal Society, an illiberal-minded
man, who insolently and enviously calls our
worthy dean a knave, and the spectators of his
experiments fools. Ha, ha! How these birds
of prey do always collect round great men."

"It is the penalty of success," replied the
other, taking a huge pinch of snuff, and leading
his friend by the arm, to show him some
marvellous engravings by Marc Antonio.

In the great room, with the oriel-window
looking out, on the lawn, where the cedar-tree
stood, was Bertha, holding her father's hand
fondly between hers, and kissing him at every
sentence, as if to assure herself of his actual
bodily presence.

"O, do tell me about the king, dear papa.
How was he dressed?—how did he look?—
what did he say?—and was the queen there?
Tell us all."

"The king, Bertha, wore a dark red coat,
embroidered with small gold strawberries, and a
deep-flapped white satin waistcoat, trimmed with
broad gold lace. He was full of amiable
condescension, and asked a great many questions,
half of which, good man, he answered himself,
in his usual quick, abrupt, good-humoured way.
He examined the gold with great interest, and
expressed to me his full approbation."

"Victory! victory! dear papa," said the
enthusiastic girl, leaping up and clapping her
hands. "Did I not always say that you would
be a great man, and triumph over everybody?
Shan't I crow over that spiteful Miss Flicker,
who used to sneer at you for sitting up half
the night over your furnaces, boiling away your
money, and your time and health, as she used
to say. O, only fancy, making gold!"

"Pray for me, my dear Bertha. Do not forget
to pray for me, that I keep humble, lest it be said
of me as of Benjamin, that I turned back in the
day of battle. I trust no one has been in my
laboratory in my absence."

With an air of smiling vigilance Bertha drew
the key of the dean's laboratory from her
bosom.

At that moment the door opened, and Bessy
looked in.

"If you please, sir, there's a gentleman wants
to see you."

"Show him in," said the dean.

In a moment Bessy returned and ushered in
the stranger, whose interview with the verger
we have already reported.

He bowed and took the chair proffered by the
dean.

"I am," he said, "a medical man from a
distant part of England, attracted here by the
fame of your recent chemical discoveries, and
more especially by the pamphlet recently
published by you on some remarkable experiments on
mercury. I agree with you that there is more
beyond, and feel with the great Boyle that we
scientific men are unwise and hasty in putting
limits to the power of nature and art, and in
deriding all who believe in uncommon things."

The dean smiled. He was evidently pleased
at this harangue, although the oration was
uttered in a very set and mechanical way, and
the stranger's eyes looked cold and lifeless, as if
they were jet beads, and the words came
through his small pinched lips one by one as a
schoolboy lets out wasps from a phial-bottle.

"You are on the brink of great discoveries,"
he went on, with the same dry, monotonous
voice. "You are a Columbus about to set foot
on a vast auriferous continent: the greatest of
secrets is, I may say, all but within your reach."

The doctor bowed, smiled, and bent his
powdered head deprecatingly. "You rate my
discoveries, my dear sir, too highly. I am sorry
that my account, and to which I myself insisted
on giving merely the humble title of 'Experiments
on Mercury,' should have been held out
to the world as announcing the actual discovery
of the philosopher's stone, which in the usual
(mark me)—I say the usual—sense of the word,
I perhaps, as well as others, think merely
chimerical."

The stranger's eyelids compressed till his eyes
became almost invisible. A hard smile, such
as you see on the mouth of a bronze faun,