"To tell you the truth, that is it," interrupts Hardinge, simply. "I don't wonder at your indignation, but the fact is, I love her so much, that I fear to put it to the touch myself. You _will_ help me, won't you? You see, you stand in the place of her father, Curzon. If you were her father, I should be saying to you just what I am saying now." "True," says the professor. His head is lowered. "There, go," says he, "I must think this over." "But I may depend upon you"--anxiously--"you will do what you can for me?" "I shall do what I can for _her_." CHAPTER XIV. "Now, by a two-headed Janus, Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time." Hardinge is hardly gone before another--a far heavier--step sounds in the passage outside the professor's door. It is followed by a knock, almost insolent in its loudness and sharpness. "What a hole you do live in," says Sir Hastings, stepping into the room, and picking his way through the books and furniture as if afraid of being tainted by them. "Bless me! what strange beings you scientists are. Rags and bones your surroundings, instead of good flesh and blood. Well, Thaddeus--hardly expected to see _me_ here, eh?" "You want me?" says the professor. "Don't sit down there--those notes are loose; sit here." "Faith, you've guessed it, my dear fellow, I _do_ want you, and most confoundedly badly this time. Your ward, now, Miss Wynter! Deuced pretty little girl, isn't she, and good form too? Wonderfully bred--considering." "I don't suppose you have come here to talk about Miss Wynter's good manners." "By Jove! I have though. You see, Thaddeus, I've about come to the length of my tether, and--er--I'm thinking of turning over a new leaf--reforming, you know--settling down--going in for dulness--domesticity, and all the other deuced lot of it." "It is an excellent resolution, that might have been arrived at years ago with greater merit," says the professor. "A preacher and a scientist in one! Dear sir, you go beyond the possible," says Sir Hastings, with a shrug. "But to business. See here, Thaddeus. I have told you a little of my plans, now hear the rest. I intend to marry--an heiress, _bien entendu_--and it seems to me that your ward, Miss Wynter, will suit me well enough." "And Miss Wynter, will you suit _her_ well enough?" "A deuced sight too well, I should say. Why, the girl is of no family to signify, whereas the Curzons----It will be a better match for her than in her wildest dreams she could have hoped for." "Perhaps, in her wildest dreams, she hoped for a good man, and one who could honestly love her." "Pouf! You are hardly up to date, my dear fellow. Girls, now-a-days, are wise enough to know they can't have everything, and she will get a good deal. Title, position----I say, Thaddeus, what I want of you is to--er--to help me in this matter--to--crack me up a bit, eh?--to--_you_ know."