Then the Personage, magnificently superior, setting forth the folly, the sinful waste of getting him there, and not listening to his words of wisdom. "When I ope my mouth let no dog bark." No such ineptitudes from your man of science. The conditions of his work--humbleness of spirit, a patient tracking down of fact--these kept him sane; kept him oriented. Woe to him if he fell into fustian, or pretended to a wisdom he could not substantiate. Your man of science had to mind his eye and test his findings. He worked without applause, away from the limelight. He was unwritten about--unknown. Even when, after years of toil, your man of science came out of obscurity with some great gift for the world in his hand, no one except other men of science was the least excited. The _Daily Mail_ was quite unmoved. The service done mankind by science left the general public in the state of Pet Majorie's turkey: "----she was more than usual calm, She did not give a single damn." He was not complaining. All this was wholesome. "Science!" _"No high-piled monuments are theirs who chose Her great inglorious toil--no flaming death. To them was sweet the poetry of prose, And wisdom gave a fragrance to their breath."_ "Who wrote that?" my mother asked. With a thrill in his voice: "A friend of mine!" Eric said, "A friend of the human race." And he told us about him. I asked to have the verse written down. Life seemed a splendid thing as he talked; but still, a splendour only to dazzle me--not to light and lead. When he was there, all I asked was to sit and listen, and now and then to steal a look. When he had gone, all I wanted was to be left alone, that I might go over all he had said, all he had looked, and endlessly embroider upon that background. My best times, in his absence, were those safest from interruption--the long, blessed hours while other people slept. To lie in bed conjuring up pictures of Eric, conversations with Eric, had come to be my idea not only of happiness but of luxury. And, as seems the way of all indulgence taken in secret and without restraint, this of mine enervated me, made me less fit for the society of my fellow-beings. I found myself irked by the things that before had pleased me, impatient even of people I loved. I was like the secret drinker, ready to sacrifice anything to gratify my hidden craving. * * * * * All this time Bettina was less in my thoughts than she had been since she was born--till that afternoon when I began to think furiously about her again. Lord Helmstone had come with Eddie Monmouth and carried Eric off. I thought they had all three gone to the links.