第25章

He was greatly relieved, therefore, when Father Forbes explained in an incidental way that Dr.Ledsmar and he customarily ate their meals almost without a word.

"It's a philosophic fad of his," the priest went on smilingly, "and I have fallen in with it for the sake of a quiet life;so that when we do have company--that is to say, once in a blue moon--we display no manners to speak of""I had always supposed--that is, I've always heard--that it was more healthful to talk at meals," said Theron.

"Of course--what I mean--I took it for granted all physicians thought so."Dr.Ledsmar laughed."That depends so much upon the quality of the meals!" he remarked, holding his glass up to the light.

He seemed a man of middle age and an equable disposition.

Theron, stealing stray glances at him around the lampshade, saw most distinctly of all a broad, impressive dome of skull, which, though obviously the result of baldness, gave the effect of quite belonging to the face.

There were gold-rimmed spectacles, through which shone now and again the vivid sparkle of sharp, alert eyes, and there was a nose of some sort not easy to classify, at once long and thick.The rest was thin hair and short round beard, mouse-colored where the light caught them, but losing their outlines in the shadows of the background.

Theron had not heard of him among the physicians of Octavius.

He wondered if he might not be a doctor of something else than medicine, and decided upon venturing the question.

"Oh, yes, it is medicine," replied Ledsmar."I am a doctor three or four times over, so far as parchments can make one.

In some other respects, though, I should think I am probably less of a doctor than anybody else now living.

I haven't practised--that is, regularly--for many years, and I take no interest whatever in keeping abreast of what the profession regards as its progress.I know nothing beyond what was being taught in the sixties, and that I am glad to say I have mostly forgotten.""Dear me!" said Theron."I had always supposed that Science was the most engrossing of pursuits--that once a man took it up he never left it.""But that would imply a connection between Science and Medicine!" commented the doctor."My dear sir, they are not even on speaking terms.""Shall we go upstairs?" put in the priest, rising from his chair.

"It will be more comfortable to have our coffee there--unless indeed, Mr.Ware, tobacco is unpleasant to you?""Oh, my, no!" the young minister exclaimed, eager to free himself from the suggestion of being a kill-joy.

"I don't smoke myself; but I am very fond of the odor, I assure you."Father Forbes led the way out.It could be seen now that he wore a long house-gown of black silk, skilfully moulded to his erect, shapely, and rounded form.Though he carried this with the natural grace of a proud and beautiful belle, there was no hint of the feminine in his bearing, or in the contour of his pale, firm-set, handsome face.

As he moved through the hall-way, the five people whom Theron had seen waiting rose from their bench, and two of the women began in humble murmurs, "If you please, Father," and "Good-evening to your Riverence;"but the priest merely nodded and passed on up the staircase, followed by his guests.The people sat down on their bench again.

A few minutes later, reclining at his ease in a huge low chair, and feeling himself unaccountably at home in the most luxuriously appointed and delightful little room he had ever seen, the Rev.Theron Ware sipped his unaccustomed coffee and embarked upon an explanation of his errand.

Somehow the very profusion of scholarly symbols about him--the great dark rows of encased and crowded book-shelves rising to the ceiling, the classical engravings upon the wall, the revolving book-case, the reading-stand, the mass of littered magazines, reviews, and papers at either end of the costly and elaborate writing-desk--seemed to make it the easier for him to explain without reproach that he needed information about Abram.He told them quite in detail the story of his book.

The two others sat watching him through a faint haze of scented smoke, with polite encouragement on their faces.

Father Forbes took the added trouble to nod understandingly at the various points of the narrative, and when it was finished gave one of his little approving chuckles.

"This skirts very closely upon sorcery," he said smilingly.

"Do you know, there is perhaps not another man in the country who knows Assyriology so thoroughly as our friend here, Dr.Ledsmar.""That's putting it too strong," remarked the Doctor.

"I only follow at a distance--a year or two behind.

But I daresay I can help you.You are quite welcome to anything I have: my books cover the ground pretty well up to last year.Delitzsch is very interesting;but Baudissin's 'Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte'

would come closer to what you need.There are several other important Germans--Schrader, Bunsen, Duncker, Hommel, and so on.""Unluckily I--I don't read German readily," Theron explained with diffidence.

"That's a pity," said the doctor, "because they do the best work--not only in this field, but in most others.

And they do so much that the mass defies translation.

Well, the best thing outside of German of course is Sayce.

I daresay you know him, though."

The Rev.Mr.Ware shook his head mournfully.I don't seem to know any one," he murmured.

The others exchanged glances.

"But if I may ask, Mr.Ware," pursued the doctor, regarding their guest with interest through his spectacles, "why do you specially hit upon Abraham? He is full of difficulties--enough, just now, at any rate, to warn off the bravest scholar.Why not take something easier?"Theron had recovered something of his confidence."Oh, no,"he said, "that is just what attracts me to Abraham.

I like the complexities and contradictions in his character.