Ernest Starr, a writer of occasional stories, lives in North Carolina.
The most interesting element in Mr. Ernest Starr's narrative is the
dramatic conflict of emotions. Placed first in the gnomish atmosphere of
a chemical laboratory, the tone soon changes from scientific to
ethical--each interest being intensified and directed by the deep
emotion of romantic love. A serious accident in the laboratory creates
the crisis; it reveals to Noakes, the young scientist, the inexcusable
baseness in his character--a baseness which allowed him to act with
direct disloyalty to his employer and with somewhat obvious disloyalty
to the ideals cherished by the girl whom he loved. The situation is
finally relieved by his confessions and by the physician's hope that the
young scientist's physical blindness is not necessarily permanent.
The author shows unusual skill in dialogue, in analysis, and in the
handling of both conventional and dramatic situations.