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But even as he says this to himself he has taken a new tube from the rack and crawled--ten years older for that last tenhabit of truth is so strong in hie it He repeats the experiment, and confirms his fears The battle between his life and a few drops of liquid in a test-tube has been ht, and he has lost! The elasticity of the one forever, and the only indication the world ever receives of this terrible conflict between a human soul and its destiny is so the experi that it utterly refutes its author's previous conclusions Half a dozen lines--the epitaph of a dead, though unburied, life!"

My companion paused there, but I found myself unable to reply He had spoken with such intensity, such dramatic fervour, that I was completely swept away by his eloquence; so much so, indeed, that it did not even occur to me to ask myself why he should have burst out in this peculiar strain I have given you the incident in order that you e moods into which Maitland occasionally relapsed--at least, at that tilance at me he continued, in a quieter vein: "All of us , however little, of this, and I believe, as a class, scientists transcend all other men in their respect for absolute truth" He cast another one of his searching glances atto confide in you and rely upon your assistance in a matter, the successful termination of which would please me as much as the discovery of an absolute standard of measureiven you, and ended by asking me to secure him an introduction to Miss Darrow I cheerfully pro this about at the first opportunity He askedmet her so frequently, she would be likely to think it was all a "put up job"

"I do not know," I replied "Miss Darrow is a singularly close observer On the whole I think you had better reach her through her father Do you play croquet?" He replied that he was considered so of an expert in that line That, then, was surely the best way John Darroas known in the neighbourhood as a "crank" on the subject of croquet He had spent rounds His wickets were fastened to hard pine planks, and these were then carefully buried two feet deep The surface of the ground, he ont to descant, ravel, sifted just so, and rolled to a nicety The balls hth inch clearance in passing through the wickets, with the exception of the tires fore," where it was imperative that this clearance should be reduced to one-sixteenth of an inch--but I need not state more to sho he came to be considered a "crank" upon the subject