"Who told you about my invention?"
"Dr. Pendarvis, I think. Oh no, it was Dr. Chester; he said you would be a great man some day."
"Dr. Chester will have to cultivate the habit of thinking before he speaks," he said, with a laugh, "If I can be a useful man, I shall be content."
"Is it better to be useful than to be great?" she questioned, naïvely.
"Oh, well, that all depends, I expect, on the meaning you attach to words," he answered, with a broad smile. "If a man is truly great, he is, of course, useful, while a man may be very useful without being great."
"Oh, then, I shall back Dr. Chester," she said, with a pretty shrug of her shoulders.
"You had better not," he said, soberly. "Not that it will matter, of course. For whether I win or lose, you cannot be affected by the one or the other."
"Why not?"
"Oh, for fifty reasons."