‘I’ll tell you,’ returned the Professor.
‘I’ve been having a talk with Mr. Ambrose Bradley, at his own house. I gave him our lines of introduction. I’m real sorry to find that he’s as ignorant as a redskin of the great science of solar biology, and the way he received me was not reassuring—indeed, he almost showed me the door.’
‘You’re used to that, Salem,’ said Eustasia with a curious smile.
‘Guess I am,’ returned the Professor dryly; ‘only I did calculate on something different from a man of Bradley’s acquirements, I did indeed. However, he’s just one of those men who believe in nothing by halves or quarters, and if we can once win him over to an approval of our fundamental propositions, he’ll be the most valuable of all recruits to new causes—a hot convert.’
The woman sighed—a sigh so long, so weary, that it seemed to come from the very depths of her being, and her expression grew more and more sad and ennuyée, as she drew her slender fingers softly through the waters of the tank.
‘Ain’t you well to-night, Eustasia?’ inquired the Professor, looking at her with some concern.
‘As well as usual,’ was the reply. ‘Suppose European air don’t suit me; I’ve never been quite myself since I came across to this country.’
Her voice was soft and musical enough, and just then, when a peculiar wistful light filled the faces of both, it was quite possible to believe them to be brother and sister. But in all other outward respects, they were utterly unlike.
‘Tell me more about this young clergyman,’ she continued after a pause. ‘I am interested in him. The moment I saw him I said to myself he is the very image of—of——
She paused without finishing the sentence, and looked meaningly at her brother.