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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



make Virginia happy, and that she might be 

 happy in knowing that he was happy in promot- 

 ing her happiness. At last the professor, shy 

 and awkward as he was, was emboldened to offer 

 to do Virginia's hair in return. She allowed him 

 to arrange her fringe, and, as she found he did 

 no great harm to it, she let him repeat the opera- 

 tion as often as he liked. 



A week thus passed, full, as the professor 

 said, of infinite solemnity. " I admit, Paul," 

 sighed Virginia, " that this altruism, as you call 

 it, is very touching. I like it very much. But," 

 she added, sinking her voice to a whisper, " are 

 you quite sure, Paul, that it is perfectly moral ? " 



" Moral ! " echoed the professor, " moral ! 

 Why, exact thought shows us that it is the very 

 essence of all morality ! " 



XIV. 



Matters now went on charmingly. All exist- 

 ence seemed to take a richer coloring, and there 

 was something, Paul said, which, in Professor 

 Tyndall's words, " gave fullness and tone to it, 

 but which he could neither analyze nor compre- 

 hend." But at last a change came. One morn- 

 ing, while Virginia was arranging Paul's mus- 

 taches, she was frightened almost into a fit by a 

 sudden apparition at the window. It was a hid- 

 eous hairy figure, perfectly naked but for a band 

 of silver which it wore round its neck. For a 

 moment it did nothing but grin and stare ; then 

 it flung into Virginia's lap a filthy piece of car- 

 rion, and in an instant it had bounded away with 

 an almost miraculous activity. 



Virginia screamed with disgust and terror, 

 and clung to Paul's knees for protection. He 

 seemed unmoved and preoccupied. All at once, 

 to her intense surprise, she saw his face light up 

 with an expression of triumphant eagerness. 

 " The missing link ! " he exclaimed, " the missing 

 link at last ! Thank God — I beg pardon for my 

 unspeakable blasphemy — I mean, thank circum- 

 stances over which I have no control. I must 

 this instant go out and hunt for it. Give me 

 some provisions in a knapsack, for I will not 

 come back till I have caught it." 



This was a fearful blow to Virginia. She fell 

 at Paul's feet weeping, and besought him in pit- 

 eous accents that he would not thus abandon 

 her. 



" I must," said the professor, solemnly ; " for 

 I am going in pursuit of Truth. To arrive at 

 Truth is man's perfect and most rapturous hap- 

 piness. You must surely know that, even if I 

 have forgotten to tell it to you. To pursue truth 



— holy truth for holy truth's sake — is a more sol- 

 emn pleasure than even frizzling your hair." 



" Oh ! " cried Virginia, hysterically, *' I don't 

 care two straws for truth. What on earth is the 

 good of it ? " 



" It is its own end," said the professor. " It 

 is its own exceeding great reward. I must be 

 off at once in search of it. Good-by for the 

 present. Seek truth on your own account, and 

 be unspeakably happy also, because you know 

 that I am seeking it." 



The professor remained away for three days. 

 For the first two of them Virginia was inconsola- 

 ble. She wandered about mournfully, with her 

 head dejected. She very often sighed ; she very 

 often uttered the name of Paul. At last she sur- 

 prised herself by exclaiming aloud to the irre- 

 sponsive solitude, " Paul, until you were gone 

 I never knew how passionately I loved you ! " 

 No sooner were these words out of her mouth 

 than she stood still, horror-stricken. "Alas!" 

 she cried, " and have I really come to this ? I 

 am in a state of deadly sin, and there is no priest 

 here to confess to! I must conquer my forbidden 

 love as best I may. But, ah me, what a guilty 

 thing I am ! " 



As she uttered these words, her eyes fell on a 

 tin box of the professor's, marked "Private," 

 which he always kept carefully locked, and which 

 had before now excited her curiosity. Suddenly 

 she became conscious of a new impulse. " I will - 

 pursue truth ! " she exclaimed. " I will break that 

 box open, and I will see what is inside it. Ah ! " 

 she added, as, with the aid of the poker, she at 

 last wrenched off the padlock, "Paul may be 

 right, after all. There is more interest in the 

 pursuit of truth than I thought there was." 



The box was full of papers, letters, and dia- 

 ries, the greater part of which were marked 

 " Strictly private." Seeing this, Virginia's appe- 

 tite for truth became keener than ever. She in- 

 stantly began her researches. The more she 

 read, the more eager she became ; and the more 

 private appeared the nature of the documents, the 

 more insatiable did her thirst for truth grow. 

 To her extreme surprise, she gathered that the 

 professor had begun life as a clergyman. There 

 were several photographs of him in his surplice, 

 and a number of devout prayers, apparently com- 

 posed by himself for his own personal use. This 

 discovery was the result of her labors. 



" Certainly," she said, " it is one of extreme 

 significance. If Paul was a priest once, he must 

 be a priest now. Orders are indelible — at least, 

 in the Church of England I know they are." 



