‘What purpose?’ he asked.
‘I began by making you discontented. I allowed you to discover that everything is not so certain as boys are taught to believe. I put you in the way of reading, and I opened your mind to all sorts of subjects generally concealed from young men.’
‘You certainly did, and you are a most crafty as well as a most beneficent Professor.’
‘You have gradually come to understand that your own intellect, the average intellect of Man, is really equal to the consideration of all questions, even those generally reserved and set apart for women.’
‘Is it not time, therefore, to let me know this mysterious purpose?’
Professor Ingleby gazed upon him in silence for a while.
‘The purpose is not mine. It is that of a wiser and greater being than myself, whose will I carry out and whom I obey.’
‘Wiser than you, Professor? Who is she? Do you mean the Perfect Woman herself?’
‘No,’ she replied; ‘the being whom I obey and reverence is none other than—my own husband.’
Lord Chester started.