46 A CHEMICAL TRIAD. 



<I call you doctor J repeated the new-comer. 'Do you 

 hear me ?' 



6 Did you indeed f replied Dalton. 



The stranger laughed. 



6 On some people/ said he, ' honours fall unthankfully, 

 like drops of water into a thankless sea ; whilst others would 

 give their ears for honours. The Oxford people are going to 

 make you D.C.L.' 



4 D.C.L.,' said Dalton ; < and what is that f 



* Doctor of Civil Law/ replied the friend. 



' Doctor of Civil Law !' repeated Dalton, musingly, in a 

 falsetto pitch of a naturally gruff voice ; and he burst into an 

 incipient laugh, not loud, roistering laughter, but a subdued 

 cackling laugh a proper laugh for a philosopher. ' What do 

 I know about law, friend?' demanded he, as soon as he could 

 speak < law civil or law criminal f 



( Pshaw ! it is a very great honour/ replied the friend 

 * the highest that can be given by the University.' 



6 Honour ! but I say I know nothing about civil law ; and 

 if I don't know it, how can I teach it ? and if I can't teach 

 it, why am I to be called doctor T 



6 It is simply a compliment,' repeated the stranger, smiling. 



* Well, I could call it something else, if I liked,' was 

 Dalton's sly remark. ' Doctor of Civil Law ! Well, that is 

 odd. If they would call me doctor of the laws of atomic 

 combinations, there would be sense and truth in it; but 

 doctor of civil law is neither sense nor truth.' 



6 Now I have it,' was the friend's remark. ' The Oxonians 

 are determined to have you ; and I have no doubt, as a special 

 favour, they will allow the initials D.C.L. to stand for Doctor 

 of Combination Laws. There, will that suit you?' 



Perhaps by this time the fact will be evident that the 

 elderly lantern-bearer, who came forth so early in the morn- 

 ing to light the laboratory fire, was no other than the illus- 

 trious Dalton himself, the philosopher whose name is asso- 



