Miss Burns looked astonished, then laughed merrily.
"You are a physician," she cried. "You physicians are all animal torturers."
"You refer to vivisection?"
"Yes, to vivisection. It's a shame, it's a sin. It's a horrible sin to torture innocent animals to death just for the sake of adding a few days more to the life of some commonplace person."
Frederick did not reply, being too much a man of science to concur in her opinion. Miss Burns detected this, and said:
"You German physicians are horrible men. When I am in Berlin, I am in a constant state of dread that I shall die unexpectedly and before my relatives can prevent it, I shall be taken to your dreadful laboratories for dissection."
"Oh, then you have been in Berlin, Miss Burns?"
"Certainly, I have been everywhere."
The conversation now turned on Berlin. Miss Burns spoke of it glowingly, because it offered the greatest opportunities for hearing good music and seeing good plays.
"I have a number of friends among the Berlin professors and artists. One of them is a Polish pianist. He brings back money by the bushel from his American tours. He owns an estate near Cracow, and has asked me to visit him there. Unless I accept his invitation sooner than I expect to, I shall not see Berlin again for a long time."