“Think!” I repeated contemptuously; “I think the inhabitants of Barkingham are the best finders of mares’ nests in all England.  The doctor is making important chemical discoveries (the possible value of which I can appreciate, being chemical myself), and he is not quite fool enough to expose valuable secrets to the view of all the world.  His laboratory is at the top of the house, and he wisely shuts it off from the bottom to prevent accidents.  He is one of the best fellows I ever met with, and his daughter is the loveliest girl in the world.  What do you all mean by making mysteries about nothing?  He has given me an invitation to go and see him.  I suppose the next thing you will find out is, that there is something underhand even in that?”

“You won’t accept the invitation?”

“I shall, at the very first opportunity; and if you had seen Miss Alicia, so would you.”

“Don’t go.  Take my advice and don’t go,” said the Treasurer, gravely.  “You are a young man.  Reputable friends are of importance to you at the outset of life.  I say nothing against Doctor Dulcifer—­he came here as a stranger, and he goes away again as a stranger—­but you can’t be sure that his purpose in asking you so readily to his house is a harmless one.  Making a new acquaintance is always a doubtful speculation; but when a man is not visited by his respectable neighbors—­”

“Because he doesn’t open his shutters,” I interposed sarcastically.

“Because there are doubts about him and his house which he will not clear up,” retorted the Treasurer.  “You can take your own way.  You may turn out right, and we may all be wrong; I can only say again, it is rash to make doubtful acquaintances.  Sooner or later you are always sure to repent it.  In your place I should certainly not accept the invitation.”

“In my place, my dear sir,” I answered, “you would do exactly what I mean to do.”

The Treasurer took his arm out of mine, and without saying another word, wished me good-morning.

CHAPTER VII.

I had spoken confidently enough, while arguing the question of Doctor Dulcifer’s respectability with the Treasurer of the D uskydale Institution; but, if my perceptions had not been blinded by my enthusiastic admiration for Alicia, I think I should have secretly distrusted my own opinion as soon as I was left by myself.  Had I been in full possession of my senses, I might have questioned, on reflection, whether the doctor’s method of accounting for the suspicions which kept his neighbors aloof from him, was quite satisfactory.  Love is generally described, I believe, as the tender passion.  When I remember the insidiously relaxing effect of it on all my faculties, I feel inclined to alter the popular definition, and to call it a moral vapor-bath.

What the Managing Committee of the Duskydale Institution thought of the change in me, I cannot imagine.  The doctor and his daughter left the town on the day they had originally appointed, before I could make any excuse for calling again; and, as a necessary consequence of their departure, I lost all interest in the affairs of the ball, and yawned in the faces of the committee when I was obliged to be present at their deliberations in my official capacity.