POSITIVISM OF AIT ISLAND. 



13 



XT. 



Paul came back, to Virginia's extreme re- 

 lief, without the missing link. But he was still 

 radiant, in spite of his failure ; for he had discov- 

 ered, he said, a place where the creature had ap- 

 parently slept, and he had collected in a card-pa- 

 per box a large number of its parasites. 



" I am glad," said Virginia, " that you have 

 not found the missing link ; though, as to think- 

 ing that we really came from monkeys, of course, 

 that is too absurd. Now, if you could have 

 brought me a nice monkey, I should really have 

 liked that. The bishop has promised that I shall 

 have a darling one, if I ever reach him — ah, me ! 

 — if, Paul," continued Virginia, in a very solemn 

 voice, after a long pause, "do you know that, 

 while you have been away, I have been pursuing 

 truth ? I rather like it, and I found it very, very 

 significant." 



" Oh, joy ! " exclaimed the professor. " Oh, 

 unspeakable radiance ! Oh, holy, oh, essentially- 

 diguified Humanity ; it will very soon be perfect ! 

 Tell me, Virginia, what truths have you been dis- 

 covering ? " 



"One truth about you, Paul," said Virginia, 

 very gravely, " and one truth about me. I burn 

 — oh, I burn to tell them to you ! " 



The professor was enraptured to hear that one- 

 half of Humanity had been studying human na- 

 ture ; and he began asking Virginia if her discov- 

 eries belonged to the domain of historical or bio- 

 logical science. Meanwhile, Virginia had flung 

 herself on her knees before him, and was exclaim- 

 ing in piteous accents : 



" By my fault, by my own fault, by my very 

 grievous fault, holy father, I confess to you — " 



" Is the woman mad ? " cried the professor, 

 starting up from his seat. 



"You are a priest, Paul," said Virginia; 

 " that is one of the things I have discovered. I 

 am in a state of deadly sin, that is the other ; and 

 I must and will confess to you. Once a priest, al- 

 ways a priest. You cannot get rid of your orders, 

 and you must and shall hear me." 



" I was once in orders, it is true," said Paul, 

 reluctantly ; " but how did you find out my mis- 

 erable secret ? " 



"In my zeal for truth," said Virginia, "I 

 broke open your tin box ; I read all your letters ; 

 I looked at your early photographs; I saw all 

 your beautiful prayers." 



" You broke open my box ! " cried the pro- 

 fessor. "You read my letters and my private 

 papers ! Oh, horrible ! oh, immoral ! What 



shall we do if half Humanity has no feeling of 

 honor?" 



" Oh," said Virginia, " it was all for the love 

 of truth — of solemn and holy truth. I sacrificed 

 every other feeling for that. But I have not told 

 you my truth, yet; and I am determined you 

 shall hear it, or I must still remain in my sins. 

 Paul, I am a married woman ; and, I discover, in 

 spite of that, that I have fallen in love with you. 

 My husband, it is true, is far away ; and, what- 

 ever we do, he could never possibly be the wiser. 

 But I am in a state of mortal sin, nevertheless ; 

 and I would give anything in the world if you 

 would only kiss me." 



" Woman ! " exclaimed Paul, aghast with 

 fright and horror, "do you dare to abuse truth, 

 by turning it to such base purposes ? " 



" Oh, you are so clever," Virginia went on, 

 " and, when the ends of your mustaches are 

 waxed, you look positively handsome ; and I love 

 you so deeply and so tenderly, that I shall cer- 

 tainly go to hell if you do not give me absolu- 

 tion." 



At this the professor jumped up, and, staring 

 very hard at Virginia, asked her if, after all that 

 he had said on the ship, she really believed in 

 such exploded fallacies as hell, God, and priest- 

 craft. 



She reminded him that he had preached there 

 without a surplice, and that she had, therefore, 

 not thought it right to listen to a word he said. 



" Ah," cried the professor, with a sigh of in- 

 tense relief, " I see it all now. How can Human- 

 ity ever be unspeakably holy so long as one-half 

 of it grovels in dreams of an unspeakably holy 

 God ? As Mr. Frederic Harrison truly says, a 

 want of faith in ' the essential dignity of man, is 

 one of the surest marks of the enervating influ- 

 ence of this dream of a celestial glory.' " The 

 professor accordingly redelivered to Virginia the 

 entire substance of his lectures in the ship. He 

 fully impressed on her that all the intellect of the 

 world was on the side of Humanity, and that 

 God's existence could be disproved with a box 

 of chemicals. He was agreeably surprised at 

 finding her not at all unwilling to be convinced, 

 and extremely unexacting in her demands for 

 proof. In a few days, she had not a remnant of 

 superstition left. " At last ! " exclaimed the pro- 

 fessor ; " it has come at last ! Unspeakable hap- 

 piness will surely begin now." 



XVI. 



No one could possibly be more emancipated 

 than Virginia. She tittered all day long, and, 



