"It was no mistake—I am sometimes called so in this place, though not by my own will; I have no right to the title!"
"Well," I said, as I looked round the room. "won't you shake hands with me? You don't know what a pleasure it is to meet a man of science, as it is evident you are, here in these forlorn uplands!"
"Will you pardon me a moment till I inform you exactly of my status?" he said, "and when you clearly understand, if you still wish to shake my hand—well, with all my heart."
He stood silent a moment, and then, suddenly recollecting himself, "Will you not sit down?" he said. "Pray forgive my discourtesy."
I sat down, displacing as I did so a box of tools which had been planted on the green rep of the easy-chair cover.
"You may well be astonished that I wish to speak to you, Dr. McQuhirr," he said, beginning restlessly to pace the room, mechanically avoiding the various obstacles on the floor as he did so; "but I have long wished to put myself right with a member of the profession, and now that chance has thrown us together, I feel that I must speak——"
"But there is Dr. Campbell—surely it cannot be that two men of such kindred tastes, in a small place like this, should not know each other!"
He flushed painfully, and turning to a stand near the window, played with the flywheel of a small model, turning it back and forward with his finger.
"Dr. Campbell is the victim of a most unfortunate prejudice," he murmured softly, and for a space said no more. It was so still in the room that through the quiet I could hear the tall eight-day clock ticking half-way up the stairs.
He resumed his narrative and his pacing to and fro at the same moment.