He had been thinking about that very seriously of late. Ernestine was at least in position now to show the possibilities of the situation, and working with Karl would do more for her in a month than working along this way would do in five. Why not? No matter how long they waited it was going to be hard at first. The deep lines in Karl's face furnished the strongest argument against further waiting. "What have we here?" he asked, picking up one of the embossed books lying open on the table near Karl. "I presume that's my Bible," Karl replied. "Has it come to this?" the doctor asked dryly. "Didn't we ever tell you the story of my Bible?" "No. You never did. I never suspected you had one." "Oh yes; the Bible was the first book of this sort I had. It was sent to me by some home missionary society, some woman's organization--" "Fools!" broke in Parkman. "They saw in the paper about my eyes and so they said to themselves--'Now here is a good chance to convert one of those ungodly scientists.' So they sent the Bible along with a nice little note saying that now I would have time to read it, and perhaps all of this was the hand of God leading me--you can construct the rest. Well." he paused with a laugh--"Ernestine was mad." "I should hope so!" growled Parkman. "She was so divinely angry that in having fun with her I overlooked being enraged myself. Oh, if I could only give you any idea of how incensed she was! I think she intended notifying the Chicago police. Really I don't know to what lengths she would have gone had it not been for my restraining influence. And then she constructed a letter. It was a masterpiece--I can tell you that. She compared me to them--greatly to their disadvantage. She spoke of the various kinds of religious manifestation--again greatly to their disadvantage." "Did she send it?" laughed the doctor. "No. I persuaded her that well-intentioned people should receive the same kindly tolerance we extend to the mentally defective. The writing of the letter in itself half way contented her--it was such a splendid expression of her emotions. Poor old girl," he added musingly, "she was feeling pretty sore about things just then." "But the sequel is the queer part," he went on. "I began to read their Bible, and I like it. It's part of the irony of fate that I haven't gotten from it the things they intended I should; but I tell you part of this Old Testament is immense reading. You know, Parkman, I suppose we're prejudiced ourselves. We don't see the Bible as it is itself. We see it in relation to a lot of people who surround it. And because we don't care for some of them we think we shouldn't care for it. Whereas the thing in itself," he concluded cheerfully, "is just what we'd like." "And how go your own books?" Dr. Parkman asked him.