He was fain to confess that his energies had long demanded a wider field for their exercise. He had done a certain amount of work which would last. Tho seed sown must bear fruit some day, and in the voluntary retirement he had embraced, he had found a strong internal felicity which could have come to him in no other way. A growing conviction took hold of him that he was being prepared, by an unseen Hand, for some great work which would require all that self-command, that conviction of right, that neglect of selfish ease, which had come to him during these Spanish days. He had found that in the lowest of our race, there is lying dormant that spark of the Divine essence which needs but the call of sympathy to awaken. With these poor folk he had spent some of the happiest years of his life, among them had found many real friends, and had learned in their company a thousand things to enable him to benefit mankind. CHAPTER XLIII. DR. SONES SUCCEEDS. I have no title to aspire, Yet when you sink I seem the higher.—_Swift_. The greatest professor and proficient in any science loves it not so sincerely as to be fully pleased with any finer effort than he can himself produce—_Lacon_. Dr. Sones had pursued his investigations till he had made the great discovery of a test for the active principle of the poisonous fungi. He clearly demonstrated that the poison of the deadly Russian fungus was identical with that absorbed by the handkerchiefs which Mrs. Crowe’s maid had given to Mr. Mole. Here then was the detection of a horrible crime! He of course lost no time in communicating these important results to Mr. Mole, whose triumph was complete. They held long deliberation as to what was to be done. In the minds of both these experts there was no doubt of the guilt of Mr. Crowe; but was it advisable to bring his guilt home to him? They decided it was not possible, nor was it expedient even were it in their power. But Mr. Mole determined to do one thing that would test the matter pretty closely. He wrote a learned and exhaustive paper for the Medical Society of the Hospital on “The Physiological and Chemical Tests of the Poisonous Principles of Fungi,” and read it. Mr. Crowe, who was the chairman of the Society, wrote, an hour or two before the meeting, that “important engagements would prevent him having the extreme pleasure of being present that evening to hear Mr. Mole’s deeply interesting paper.” Dr. Wilson occupied his place, and so highly did he and the rest of the staff and students present think of the monograph that it was ordered to be printed and circulated at the Society’s expense. Mr. Mole received the warm congratulations of the audience, and it was felt that he had conferred honour on his _alma mater_ by his original research.