This night he was having the fight
of hra life. I, his assistant, was only
jpassively on his side, while Paul Tar
xant, the millionaire, our host, flatly
(denied his claim, and Capt. Meivyn
(O'Farrell of the Ninth Virginia regi
ment, declared that the doctor was
talking "absolute nonsense, if you'll
excuse me, doctor The captain was
& member of the Episcopalian church
and held the cioed in its orthodox
rigidity. He had no use for imported
Oriental myths, as he expressed him
self. If he had known that the doc
trine of reincarnation was held uni
versally in the ancient world, not ex
cluding some of the early missionaries
of Christianity, he would still have pro
tested with equal vehemence. In fact,
lie grew so heated that he cut short
his visit by a full hour and left us,
courteously enough, but distinctly up
Bet by what he would have privately
called "the damned nonsense of that
little Greek doctor."
When the captain was gone we drew
our chairs closer around the fire and
,-wanned our fingers at its blaze.
"He's a fine fellow, O'Farrell," said
Mr. Tarrant, apologeticallyfor the
captain had gone in his opposition al
most to the limits of what courtesy al
lowed. "You must forgive his heat,
Immanuel. The tact is, he is laboring
under a severe nervous strain just
now. Would you like to hear the
story?"
We were glad to have the subject
changed so adroitly.
