She left the lights flaring in the laboratory, and, merely stopping to put the catch on the door, ran down the steps, fastening her linen coat over her working dress as she went.  David would be at home.  He would be resting, perhaps,—­she hoped so.  For days he had been feverish and strange, and she had wondered if he were tormented by that sense of world-stress which was forever driving him.  Was there no achievement that would satisfy him, she wondered.  Yes, yes, he must be satisfied now!  Moreover, he should have all the credit.  To have found the origin of life, though only in a voiceless creature,—­a reptile,—­was not that an unheard-of victory?  She would claim no credit; for without him and his daring to inspire her she would not have dreamed of such an experiment.

Of course, she might have telephoned to him, but it never so much as occurred to her to do that.  She wanted to cry the words into his ear:—­

“We have it!  The secret is ours!  There is a hidden door into the house of life—­and we’ve opened it!”

Oh, what treasured, ancient ideas fell with the development of this new fact!  She did not want to think of that, because of those who, in the rearrangement of understanding, must suffer.  But as for her, she would be bold to face it, as the mate and helper of a great scientist should be.  She would set her face toward the sun and be unafraid of any glory.  Her thoughts spun in her head, her pulses throbbed.  She did not know that she was thinking it, but really she was feeling that in a moment more she would be in David’s arms.  Only some such gesture would serve to mark the climax of this great moment.  Though they so seldom caressed, though they had indulged so little in emotion, surely now, after their long and heavy task, they could have the sweet human comforts.  They could be lovers because they were happy.

Perhaps, after all, she would only cry out to him:—­“It will be yours, David—­the Norden prize!” That would tell the whole thing.

People looked after her as she sped down the street.  At first they thought she was in distress, but a glance at her shining face, its nobility accentuated by her elation, made that idea untenable.  She was obviously the bearer of good tidings.

Dr. von Shierbrand, passing on the other side of the street, called out:—­

“Carrying the good news from Ghent to Aix?”

An old German woman, with a laden basket on her arm nodded cheerfully.

“It’s a baby,” she said aloud to whoever might care to corroborate.

But Honora carried happiness greater than any dreamed,—­a secret of the ages,—­and the prize was her man’s fame.

She reached her own door, and with sure, swift hands, fitted the key in the lock.  The house wore a welcoming aspect.  The drawing-room was filled with blossoming plants, and the diaphanous curtains which Blue-eyed Mary had hung at the windows blew softly in the breeze.  The piano, with its suggestive litter of music, stood open, and across the bench trailed one of Mary’s flowered chiffon scarfs.