“I feel too flattered for anything that you deign to speak to me,” she said, laughing and bowing low.
Professor Arbuthnot looked pleased; she was far above conceit, but she was not entirely impervious to such fresh, genuine admiration. She was feeling particularly happy, too, over the results of her experiments—particularly interested in her work.
“If you are so impressed by that,” she laughed, “I shall have to tell you something even more wonderful still. I have just received an honorary degree from —— College. It was quite unexpected, and I must say I am extremely pleased. It is very agreeable to know that one’s work is appreciated when one has given one’s life to it.”
It seemed to the girl, with these evidences of success appealing to her, that a life could not be more nobly spent than in such work. She went slowly around the room after that, looking at a great many interesting things. At books with priceless autographs on their title-pages, and photographs of famous scientists, and diagrams of electrical apparatus, and editions in pamphlet form of articles by Professor Arbuthnot, published originally in scientific journals.
The girl suddenly felt sick and ashamed of herself. It struck her very forcibly just how little she knew, and how she had neglected her opportunities.
“What an awful ignoramus I am!” she burst out at length. “I don’t know what these mean; I have only the vaguest idea what these men have done. How different you are! Your life has had a high aim and you have attained it. While I——!” she stopped with a scornful gesture. “If it were not for Julian I believe I would come back here and start over!”
Miss Arbuthnot looked at her critically. She admired the girl’s beauty tremendously—it was her one weakness—this love of beauty. She never looked at herself in a mirror oftener than necessary.
“Ah! Julian; who is Julian?”
The girl blushed again—she had a pretty way of flushing quickly.
“Julian?—why he’s my husband. I forgot to tell you that I married my cousin, Julian Ellis, as soon as I left college.”