"
It was a strange, grave voice in which he spoke, and when she reached
the room, they set Allen's most luxurious chair for her, but she
stood trembling, reading in their faces that there was something they
hesitated to tell her. They looked at one another as if to ask which
should do it, and a certain indignation and alarm seized on her.
"You believe in it!" she cried, as if she suspected them of
disloyalty.
"Most entirely!" they both exclaimed.
"It is a great discovery," added Jock, "but-—"
"But," said John, as he hesitated, "it has been worked out within the
last two years."
"Not Dr. Hermann!" she cried.
"No, indeed!" said Jock. "Why?"
"Because poor Janet overheard our conversation, and obtained a sight
of the book. It was her ambition. I believe it was fatal to her.
She may have caught up enough of the outline to betray it. Jock, you
remember that scene at Belforest?"
"I do," said Jock; "but this is not that scoundrel. It is Ruthven,
who has worked it out in a full and regular way. It is making a
considerable sensation though it has scarcely yet come into use as a
mode of treatment. Mother, do not be disappointed. It will be the
blessing that my father intended, all the sooner for not being in the
hands of two lads like us, whom all the bigwigs would scout!"
"And what I never thought of before," said John.
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