Her name was Alicia!  I declare it was a luxury to me to hear it—­the name was so appropriate, so suggestive of the grace and dignity of her beauty.

I turned toward her when the doctor had done.  She looked more gloomily than before.  I protested against the doctor’s account of himself.  He laughed again, with a quick distrustful lo ok, this time, at his daughter.

“If you were to mention my name among your respectable inhabitants,” he went on, with a strong, sneering emphasis on the word respectable, “they would most likely purse up their lips and look grave at it.  Since I gave up practice as a physician, I have engaged in chemical investigations on a large scale, destined I hope, to lead to some important public results.  Until I arrive at these, I am necessarily obliged, in my own interests, to keep my experiments secret, and to impose similar discretion on the workmen whom I employ.  This unavoidable appearance of mystery, and the strictly retired life which my studies compel me to lead, offend the narrow-minded people in my part of the county, close to Barkingham; and the unpopularity of my pursuits has followed me here.  The general opinion, I believe, is, that I am seeking by unholy arts for the philosopher’s stone.  Plain man, as you see me, I find myself getting quite the reputation of a Doctor Faustus in the popular mind.  Even educated people in this very place shake their heads and pity my daughter there for living with an alchemical parent, within easy smelling-distance of an explosive laboratory.  Excessively absurd, is it not?”

It might have been excessively absurd, but the lovely Alicia sat with her eyes on her work, looking as if it were excessively sad, and not giving her father the faintest answering smile when he glanced toward her and laughed, as he said his last words.  I could not at all tell what to make of it.  The doctor talked of the social consequences of his chemical inquiries as if he were living in the middle ages.  However, I was far too anxious to see the charming brown eyes again to ask questions which would be sure to keep them cast down.  So I changed the topic to chemistry in general; and, to the doctor’s evident astonishment and pleasure, told him of my own early studies in the science.

This led to the mention of my father, whose reputation had reached the ears of Doctor Dulcifer.  As he told me that, his daughter looked up—­the sun of beauty shone on me again!  I touched next on my high connections, and on Lady Malkinshaw; I described myself as temporarily banished from home for humorous caricaturing, and amiable youthful wildness.  She was interested; she smiled—­and the sun of beauty shone warmer than ever!  I diverged to general topics, and got brilliant and amusing.  She laughed—­the nightingale notes of her merriment bubbled into my ears caressingly—­why could I not shut my eyes and listen to them?  Her color rose; her face grew animated.  Poor soul!  A little lively company was but too evidently a rare treat to her.  Under such circumstances, who would not be amusing?  If she had said to me, “Mr. Softly, I like tumbling,” I should have made a clown of myself on the spot.  I should have stood on my head (if I could), and been amply rewarded for the graceful exertion, if the eyes of Alicia had looked kindly on my elevated heels!