to call this evening on some ladies, and I must keep that promise. Yet my
stomach is shouting for beefsteak and onions, and I am wavering between
duty and appetite."

"Can't you wait until after the call?" asked the gentleman, solicitously.

"Never," said the friend, earnestly.

"Can't you postpone the call?"

"Impossible," declared the friend.

"Well," said the gentleman, "I'll tell you what to do: go to John
Chamberlin's cafe; order your beefsteak and onions, and eat them. When
you get your bill it will be so big that it will _quite take your breath
away_."


97. THE EXTENT OF SCIENCE

"And now," said the learned lecturer on geology who had addressed a small
but deeply attentive audience at the village hall, "I have tried to make
these problems, abstruse as they may appear, and involving in their
solution the best thoughts, the closest analysis, and the most profound
investigations of our noblest scientific men for many years; I have tried,
I say, to make them seem comparatively simple and easily understood, in the
light of modern knowledge. Before I close this lecture I shall be glad to
answer any questions that may occur to you as to points that appear to need
clearing up or that may have been overlooked."