MR. W. Ferdinand, I promised your mother that I would always do what I could to further your interests. Let us go and find my wife. (_Exeunt_ FERDINAND _and_ MR. WATMUFF, _door_ R.) WALTER. That seems to be a very enterprising and pushing young gentleman, and one likely to make his way in the world. But what a shocking old villain my future father-in-law turns out to be! He really seems to relish the idea of performing this awful experiment on his unfortunate wife. She may be a trying woman, but she doesn't deserve to run such a risk as this. Now what am I to do? Clearly I can't be an accomplice in a thing of this sort. Freezing my mother-in-law! And equally clearly I must put a stop to it; but the difficulty is, how am I to do it without offending old Mr. Watmuff, who is my only friend in the house? (_Notices that_ SWIFT _has left his bottle on table_.) Ah! an idea strikes me; if I could only have a moment with Mrs. Watmuff I might tell her, and so ingratiate myself with her. (_Enter_ MRS. WATMUFF, _door_ L.) MRS. W. Still here, sir? Was not my mandate sufficiently clear to you? WALTER. My dear Mrs. Watmuff, I am indeed lucky thus to meet you at this moment, and we may both be thankful that I did not leave the house when you told me. MRS. W. How, sir? I do not comprehend you. You speak in parables. WALTER. I speak in great haste, madam, and I beg of you to listen to me. Every moment is of vital importance, and I do not hesitate to say that your life may depend on hearing me. MRS. W. My life, sir? I do not dread death, young man. My parents dreaded it not. It came, and they accepted it; and so in due season shall I accept it. WALTER. But, Mrs. Watmuff, it may come to you in very undue season. To be brief with you, I have discovered that at this very moment, in this very house, a horrible plot is being concocted which may cost you your life. MRS. W. A plot! How say you? And who, then, are the conspirators? WALTER. You have a nephew named Ferdinand Swift-- MRS. W. A hare-brained adventurer. He is in the other hemisphere. WALTER. He has returned, and is in this house. He has brought with him some wild American invention with which he proposes to make his fortune. Do you see this bottle? MRS. W. I observe a phial, sir. WALTER. This bottle contains a fluid which will, so says your nephew, if injected into the ear, freeze or suspend the animation of the subject so operated on, until another fluid, injected into the other ear, restores life. The difficulty is to persuade any one to submit himself to so hazardous an experiment; but he has so excited the curiosity of Mr. Watmuff, that he has consented that _you_ should be subjected-- MRS. W. _He_ has consented? I gather, sir, that my consent would also be necessary.