A Strange Presentiment.
Atkins, with his wonted vivacity, sought to introduce a conversation,
but he did not succeed. For all that was said to him, Alison had a
cold, polite assent; and the professor, even more reticent than usual,
seized the first opportunity to take refuge in the house. After a few
minutes, in his timid, courteous way, he took leave of the elderly
American, bowed silently and distantly to his young companion, and left
the two alone.
"Who is this Fernow?" asked Alison when the Professor was out of
hearing.
"I have already told you. Professor in the university here, a shining
light of science, a precious example of a German scholar, who with his
investigations, and thousand-year-old rubbish and hieroglyphics,
devotes himself to the good of humanity, and meantime withers up into a
mummy. A very well conducted, blameless specimen besides, who made
himself supremely comic in the role of knight and protector which he
assumed towards Miss Jane on the day of our arrival."
Alison, who had been gazing after the professor, now turned suddenly
around.
"Towards Miss Forest?" he asked hastily. "But personally not her sole
protector? It is to be hoped that you were present."
"Not at all! Our carriage broke, out on a suburban road; it rained in
torrents, I had to remain behind with injured postilion, and was glad
to consign Jane to the protection of the first gentleman who offered;
in this case it was Professor Fernow, who was passing our tragic group,
and to whom his learning had at last left sense enough to take the lady
entrusted to him safely to B."
"Ah!" said Alison sharply. "And this adventure has naturally led to a
more intimate acquaintanceship between the two, who, being inmates of
the same house, meet and converse daily?"
For a moment, Atkins gazed at him in astonishment, then burst into a
loud laugh.
"Henry, I really believe you are jealous! Jealous of this consumptive
professor! Do you know what it means to be at thirty years invested
with a professorship in a German university, with its horrible
scientific thoroughness?--and he is not yet thirty! It takes a prodigy
of learning for such a place! A man who devotes himself body and soul
to his books, and knows nothing of the clear light of day. Really, you
do the poor professor a cruel wrong if you believe that anything not
bound in calf, exists for him; and as Miss Jane does not enjoy that
enviable distinction, she unfortunately has no claim to his approval."
Alison paid no attention to this irony. "Does Miss Forest often
converse with him?" he asked impatiently.
"Not at all! At least when I am present, they both seem to have lost
the gift of speech, so dumbly do they pass each other by. I implore
you, Henry, not to insult the taste of your betrothed in this way!
Where is your self-esteem? Do you really place yourself on a level with
this bookworm?"
Alison's brow began to clear. "You are right, it would be ridiculous.
At home I had to enter the list with many wooers of Miss Forest, and
there were no despicable rivals among them. But I had no fear at sight
of this consumptive professor, as you call him. I had a sort of
presentiment that he might become dangerous to me."
"A presentiment!" echoed Atkins with a growl. "For Heaven's sake,
Henry, don't begin to have presentiments! This is one of the German
sensations. They never really reckon, they have all sorts of
presentiments. And you, too, are not going to fall into this nonsense?"
Before Alison could reply, they were interrupted; a young servant girl
appeared to announce the arrival of the lady of the house and Miss
Forest, and to invite the gentlemen in.
Jane, with her usual self-importance, had kept her engagement secret
from her relatives, and the betrothed pair met as strangers.