everything nowadays to vibration. Light, sound, sensation--all the
mysteries of nature are either vibrations or interference of
vibrations. There," she said, throwing another pair of pebbles in,
and pointing to the two sets of widening rings as they overlapped
one another; "the twinkling of a star, and the pulsation in a chord
of music, are THAT. But I cannot picture the thing in my own mind. I
wonder whether the hundreds of writers of text-books on physics, who
talk so glibly of vibrations, realize them any better than I do."

"Not a bit of it. Not one of them. Not half so well," said Cashel,
cheerfully, replying to as much of her speech as he understood.

"Perhaps the subject does not interest you," she said, turning to
him.

"On the contrary; I like it of all things," said he, boldly.

"I can hardly say so much for my own interest in it. I am told that
you are a student, Mr. Cashel Byron. What are your favorite
studies?--or rather, since that is generally a hard question to
answer, what are your pursuits?"

Alice listened.

Cashel looked doggedly at Lydia, and his color slowly deepened. "I
am a professor," he said.

"A professor of what? I know I should ask of where; but that would
only elicit the name of a college, which would convey no real
information to me."