The Equinox (Volume I, Number VII)

PROFESSOR ZIRCON Then a gleam of sanity crossed the bigoted scientific mind of the man. She might be able to explain. But he brushed away the ideal How can a fact ever be upset? Credulity itself is reason compared to the mind of the logician who has once allowed emotion to infect his brain, who has missed the {actor of the personal equation. The idea returned. 50 long she had sat there 111 her childish purity that the conservatism of his hard old brain reacted. It could not be. Things could not change. Yet? In the upshot he was English enough to try her before condemning her, German enough to lay a trap for her in the very nature of that trial. His consideration passed from judgment to execution, and his face set like a mask. Ultimately he went to a small safe in the wall, took out a half-hoop diamond ring, and dropped it into the coal-scuttle. Reward or punishment! Either the old trick—or a new one! He turned on his heel and went softly into the laboratory. Meanwhile Muriel Madox tripped along from the Escoffier in the bright February air. Her heart was very light and very anxious. The incident of the afternoon— should she tell the Professor? Concealment was foreign to her nature ; for the first time in her life she hesitated, How would it affect their relations ? It would be better to think it over, to sleep on it. It never occurred to her for a moment that the Professor might already know. In the end she decided to say nothing; but so absorbed had been her tiny brain in its little problem that 95