denunciatory--Jeremiah nervously dyspeptic! And when you opened your
envelop and drew out a couple of clergymen, really, really! But perhaps
I was in a hurry! Clergymen in a serious fix, too, because of unexpected
and not understood success! And I talk of repelling the _amateur_!"

Suddenly he paused and, with his bushy eyebrows twitching, looked
steadily at Malling.

"I leave it to you," he said. "Take your own line. But don't forget that,
if there's anything in it, development will take place in the link. The
link will be a center of combat. The link will be an interesting field
for study."

"The link?" said Malling, interrogatively.

"Goodness gracious me! Her ladyship! Her ladyship!" cried out the
professor. "What are you about, Malling?"

And he refused to say another word on the matter till Malling, after much
more conversation on other topics, got up to go. Then, accompanying him
to the front door, the professor said:

"You know _I_ think it's probably all great nonsense."

"What?"

"Your two black-coated friends. You bustle along at such a pace.
Remember, I have made more experiments than you have, and I have never
come upon an exactly similar case. I don't know whether such a thing
can be. No more do you--you've guessed. Now, guessing is not at all