enemy the same afternoon.  On my sacred word of honour it is lucky for Society that modern chemists are, by incomprehensible good fortune, the most harmless of mankind.  The mass are worthy fathers of families, who keep shops.  The few are philosophers besotted with admiration for the sound of their own lecturing voices, visionaries who waste their lives on fantastic impossibilities, or quacks whose ambition soars no higher than our corns.  Thus Society escapes, and the illimitable power of Chemistry remains the slave of the most superficial and the most insignificant ends.

Why this outburst?  Why this withering eloquence?

Because my conduct has been misrepresented, because my motives have been misunderstood.  It has been assumed that I used my vast chemical resources against Anne Catherick, and that I would have used them if I could against the magnificent Marian herself.  Odious insinuations both!  All my interests were concerned (as will be seen presently) in the preservation of Anne Catherick’s life.  All my anxieties were concentrated on Marian’s rescue from the hands of the licensed imbecile who attended her, and who found my advice confirmed from first to last by the physician from London.  On two occasions only—­both equally harmless to the individual on whom I practised—­did I summon to myself the assistance of chemical knowledge.  On the first of the two, after following Marian to the inn at Blackwater (studying, behind a convenient waggon which hid me from her, the poetry of motion, as embodied in her walk), I availed myself of the services of my invaluable wife, to copy one and to intercept the other of two letters which my adored enemy had entrusted to a discarded maid.  In this case, the letters being in the bosom of the girl’s dress, Madame Fosco could only open them, read them, perform her instructions, seal them, and put them back again by scientific assistance—­which assistance I rendered in a half-ounce bottle.  The second occasion, when the same means were employed, was the occasion (to which I shall soon refer) of Lady Glyde’s arrival in London.  Never at any other time was I indebted to my Art as distinguished from myself.  To all other emergencies and complications my natural capacity for grappling, single-handed, with circumstances, was invariably equal.  I affirm the all-pervading intelligence of that capacity.  At the expense of the Chemist I vindicate the Man.

Respect this outburst of generous indignation.  It has inexpressibly relieved me.  En route!  Let us proceed.

Having suggested to Mrs. Clement (or Clements, I am not sure which) that the best method of keeping Anne out of Percival’s reach was to remove her to London—­having found that my proposal was eagerly received, and having appointed a day to meet the travellers at the station and to see them leave it, I was at liberty to return to the house and to confront the difficulties which still remained to be met.