the use of that? I think that case is true, but I don't know that it is;
and therefore I can't argue about it, for argument should come from
knowledge, and I have none. I have a few opinions, and I am always ready
to receive impressions; but, besides some schoolboy facts that are
common property, the only thing I know--I am certain of--is, as some man
says, '_Life's a dream worth dreaming_.'"

"You're too high-falutin for me, Julius," said Embro, shaking his head.
"But my opinion, founded on my knowledge, is that this story is a
hallucination of the young woman's noddle!"

"And how much, Embro," laughed Julius, rising to leave the circle, "is
the argument advanced by your ticketing the case with that long word?"

"To say 'hallucination,'" quoth Lefevre, "is a convenient way of giving
inquiry the slip."

"My dear Embro," said Julius,--and he spoke with an emphasis, and looked
down on Embro with a bright vivacity of eye, which forewarned the circle
of one of his eloquent flashes: a smile of expectant enjoyment passed
round,--"hallucination is the dust-heap and limbo of the meanly-equipped
man of science to-day, just as witchcraft was a few hundred years ago.
The poor creature of science long ago, when he came upon any
pathological or psychological manifestation he did not understand, used
to say, '_Witchcraft_! Away with it to the limbo!' To-day he says,
'_Hallucination_! Away with it to the dust-heap!' It is a pity," said
he, with a laugh, "you ever took to science, Embro."

"And why, may I ask?" said Embro.