THE TWO MISS MANNINGS
"BE careful, Valeska, don't joggle my arm, now!" said Astro.
They were in the small laboratory that led off the great studio. Here the Seer pursued his studies in physics, chemistry, and pathology. Here he had his microscope, over which he spent most of his leisure. Here, now, he stood before the window, dressed in a linen suit, holding to the light a corked test-tube.
Valeska waited, smiling, ready for a new marvel, a new philosophic theory, some shrewd comment on human nature, or what other thought had sprung from the Master's prolific brain. She looked over his shoulder, letting her chin touch it, even; though she did not often permit herself such intimacy as this.
He did not turn his head. Instead, without speaking he unstopped the tube gently. Immediately in the glass cylinder a tiny miracle appeared. A white ray sprang from the bottom of the colorless liquid. It divided and subdivided, branching in a dozen directions; and as she looked it grew rapidly, until the interior of the vessel was filled as if by magic with a feathery delicate mass of crystals.
"Oh! How very beautiful—how wonderful!" she gasped.
He put the tube into her hand and sat down on the table.
