as that, on the mere chance that, if found, he would agree to pay my
board for the future."

If he had been less in earnest he would have been grotesque. As it was,
Sharlee was by no means sure that he escaped it; and she could not keep
a controversial note out of her voice as she said:--

"Yours must be a very great work to make you view the finding of your
father in that way."

"The greatest in the world," he answered, drily. "I may call it,
loosely, evolutionary sociology."

She was so silent after this, and her expression was so peculiar, that
he concluded that his words conveyed nothing to her.

"The science," he added kindly, "which treats of the origin, nature, and
history of human society; analyzes the relations of men in organized
communities; formulates the law or laws of social progress and
permanence; and correctly applies these laws to the evolutionary
development of human civilization."

"I am familiar with the terms. And your ambition is to become a great
evolutionary sociologist?"

He smiled faintly. "To become one?"

"Oh! Then you are one already?"

For answer, Mr. Queed dipped his hand into his inner pocket, produced a