University."

There was a long silence. Then Marcella said definitely:

"Anyway, he's splendid. I love him." The doctor laughed and told her
it was a good thing she wasn't a student if she fell in love with
professors from their lectures.

"Well, go on with what you were saying," she said imperiously, and the
doctor began to think that he had not quite reckoned with Marcella's
passion for getting to the roots of things. But he expounded his theory
to her, telling her that before many years things that were miracles in
the time of Christ would be scientific bagatelles in the hospitals.

"We've been having a materialistic time, Marcella, ever since Huxley and
Darwin. Now we're coming to the swing of the pendulum. The body and its
appetites have got very strong. Soon we'll have them beat by the mind."

There was a long silence. Then, with a suddenness that disconcerted the
doctor, she asked him what Wullie had meant by saying that the Lashcairn
women took the man they needed, and went on strange roads.

He filled and lit his pipe before he answered her.

"If I told you you wouldn't understand. You'll come to it in time. When
you do, remember what I said to you. If you don't keep your body in hand
it's going to run away with you, like it ran away with your father into
yon barrel. See?"

"No," she said doubtfully. "Do you mean be like Aunt Janet?"