Hadria coloured.
“That experience and its effect upon my own nature, which has lasted to this day,” added Theobald, “served to increase my interest in the fascinating study of character in its relation to environment.”
“Ah!” exclaimed Hadria, “then you don’t believe in the independent power of the human will?”
“Certainly not. To talk of character overcoming circumstance is to talk of an effect without a cause. Yet this phrase is a mere commonplace in our speech. A man no more overcomes his circumstance than oxygen overcomes nitrogen when it combines with it to form the air we breathe. If the nitrogen is present, the combination takes place; but if there is no nitrogen to be had, all the oxygen in the world will not produce our blessed atmosphere!”
Joseph Fleming caused a sort of anti-climax by mentioning simply that he didn’t know that any nitrogen was required in the atmosphere. One always heard about the oxygen.
Professor Theobald remarked, with a chuckle, that this was one of the uses of polite conversation; one picked up information by the wayside. Joseph agreed that it was wonderfully instructive, if the speakers were intelligent.
“That helps,” said the Professor, tapping Joseph familiarly on the shoulder.
“When shall we have our next meeting?” enquired Lady Engleton, when the moment came for parting.
“The sooner the better,” said Valeria. “English skies have Puritan moods, and we may as well profit by their present jocund temper. I never saw a bluer sky in all Italy.”
“I certainly shall not be absent from the next meeting,” announced Theobald, with a glance at Hadria.