"No! I am with you there," returned Challis. And no more was said until they were nearly home. Just before they turned into the drive, however, Challis stopped. "Do you know, Lewes," he said, "I am not sure that I am doing a wise thing in bringing that child here!" Lewes did not understand. "No, sir? Why not?" he asked. "Why, think of the possibilities of that child, if he has all the powers I credit him with," said Challis. "Think of his possibilities for original thought if he is kept away from all the traditions of this futile learning." He waved an arm in the direction of the elongated chapel. "Oh! but surely," remonstrated Lewes, "that is a necessary groundwork. Knowledge is built up step by step." "Is it? I wonder. I sometimes doubt," said Challis. "Yes, I sometimes doubt whether we have ever learned anything at all that is worth knowing. And, perhaps, this child, if he were kept away from books.... However, the thing is done now, and in any case he would never have been able to dodge the School attendance officer." CHAPTER VIII HIS FIRST VISIT TO CHALLIS COURT I "Shall you be able to help me in collating your notes of the Tikopia observations to-day, sir?" Lewes asked next morning. He rose from the breakfast-table and lit a cigarette. There was no ceremony between Challis and his secretary. "You forget our engagement for ten o'clock," said Challis. "Need that distract us?" "It need not, but doesn't it seem to you that it may furnish us with valuable material?" "Hardly pertinent, sir, is it?" "What line do you think of taking up, Lewes?" asked Challis with apparent irrelevance. "With regard to this--this phenomenon?" "No, no. I was speaking of your own ambitions." Challis had sauntered over to the window; he stood, with his back to Lewes, looking out at the blue and white of the April sky. Lewes frowned. He did not understand the gist of the question. "I suppose there is a year's work on this book before me yet," he said. "Quite, quite," replied Challis, watching a cloud shadow swarm up the slope of Deane Hill. "Yes, certainly a year's work. I was thinking of the future." "I have thought of laboratory work in connection with psychology," said Lewes, still puzzled. "I thought I remembered your saying something of the kind," murmured Challis absently. "We are going to have more rain. It will be a late spring this year." "Had the question any bearing on our engagement of this morning?" Lewes was a little anxious, uncertain whether this inquiry as to his future had not some particular significance; a hint, perhaps, that his services would not be required much longer. "Yes; I think it had," said Challis. "I saw the governess cart go up the road a few minutes since."