She bent her head.
“Perfectly!”
“You recall the incidents of the first day of your arrival here?—your brief visit to my laboratory, and what you saw there?”
She smiled.
“Do you think I could ever forget?”
“Well!—that being so I do not see why I should wait,” he said, musingly, and speaking more to himself than to her. “There is no reason why I should not begin at once the task which is bound to be long and difficult! My ‘subject’ is at my disposal—I am free to operate!”
He rose and went to an iron-bound cabinet which he unlocked and took from thence a small phial containing what appeared to be a glittering globule like an unset jewel, which moved restlessly to and fro in its glass prison. He held it up before her eyes.
“Suppose I ask you to swallow this?” he said.
For all answer, she stretched out her hand to take the phial. He laughed.
“Upon my word, you are either very brave or very reckless!” he exclaimed—“I hardly know what to think of you! But you shall not be deceived. This is a single drop of the liquid you saw in process of distillation within its locked-up cell,—it has a potent, ay, a terrific force and may cause you to swoon. On the other hand it may have quite the contrary effect. It should re-vivify—it may disintegrate,—but I cannot guarantee its action. I know its composition, but, mark you!—I have never tested it on any human creature. I cannot try it on myself—for if it robbed me of my capacity to work, I have no one to carry on my researches,—and I would not try it on my mother,—she is too old, and her life is too precious to me——”