"That abnormal child of Stott's?" prompted Challis.
"Oh! Of course, yes. I believe he still goes nearly every day to the library. I have been down there two or three times, and found him reading. He has learned the use of the index-catalogue. He can get any book he wants. He uses the steps."
"Do you know what he reads?"
"No; I can't say I do."
"What do you think will become of him?"
"Oh! these infant prodigies, you know," said Lewes with a large air of authority, "they all go the same way. Most of them die young, of course, the others develop into ordinary commonplace men rather under than over the normal ability. After all, it is what one would expect. Nature always maintains her average by some means or another. If a child like this with his abnormal memory were to go on developing, there would be no place for him in the world's economy. The idea is inconceivable."
"Quite, quite," murmured Challis, and after a short silence he added: "You think he will deteriorate, that his faculties will decay prematurely?"
"I should say there could be no doubt of it," replied Lewes.
"Ah! well. I'll go down and have a look at him, one day next week," said Challis; but he did not go till the middle of October.
The immediate cause of his going was a letter from Crashaw, who offered to come up to town, as the matter was one of "really peculiar urgency."