"The saddest time in the world for me if you are going to leave me."
"Don't be maudlin." She had recovered her self-command, and was disposed to be extra severe. "Sentimental nothings is hardly your strong point."
She was ready with an answer. "Plain down-right impudence."
He, too, was recovering speech. "I'm glad I have _one_ strong trait. I was afraid there was nothing about me to make a definite impression on a proud beauty like you."
"Please don't try to be literary. Stick to your oars and your baseball raquet."
In this juvenile spat they approached the porch where Mr. Bartol stood waiting for them.
"Young people," he called, in a voice that somehow voiced a deep emotion, "do you realize that it is midnight?"
Protesting their amazement, they mounted the steps and entered the house; but the moment they looked into their host's face they became serious, perceiving that something very tremendous had taken place in his laboratory.
"What has happened?" asked Leo. "What did she do?"
"I don't know yet," he replied, strangely inconclusive in tone and phrase. "I must think it all over. If I can persuade myself that the marvels which I have witnessed are realities, the universe is an entirely new and vastly different machine for me."
Thrilling to the excitement in his face and in his voice, they passed on. At the top of the stairs Leo faced Victor with eyes big with excitement. "What do you suppose came to him?"
"I haven't an idea. He seemed terribly wrought up, though."
"We must say good-night." She held out her hand, and he took it.
"This has been the finest, most instructive day of my life."
She released her hand with a little decisive, dismissing movement. "How nice of you! Signor Morselli should know of it. Good-night!" And the smile with which she left him was delightfully provoking and mirthful.
Victor would have gone straight to his mother had he known where to find her, for he was eager to know what had taken place in the deeps of Bartol's study. That she had been able to mystify the great lawyer, he was convinced; and yet, perhaps, this was only temporary. "He will go further. What will he find?"
He was standing before his dresser slowly removing his collar and tie when the door opened and his mother entered. She was abnormally wide awake, and her eyes, violet in their intensity, betrayed so much excitement that he exclaimed: "Why, mother, what's the matter? What kind of a session did you have? What has happened to you?"