never read a line of Burrns. I notice that you have been looking at my books. I gather that you have a degree of literary perception, and I notice also that your orrgan of obsairvation is moderately well developed, but your orrgan of self-esteem induces you to be assertive, and opine you know more than you do, which is accentuated by your weak development o' the orrgan o' conscientiousness,-a a vara great fault in any man, for it induces the vanity that shuts out real knowledge." "You talk like a professional phrenologist," said Wilmot, much amused, and a little bit annoyed, as most men are, at uninvited criticism of their weak points. "Phrenology and its cognate sciences have been my study for years. I am exceedingly well-informed on them. In fact, there is not a man in South Africa, and vara few in Europe, who know more about it than I. Let me diagnose you mechanically." Adam went to a shelf and took down a leathern hat-case, from which he extracted a fearsome-looking thing something like a cylindrical bird cage without a bottom, constructed of steel laths and abounding with screws. "This is a valuable and ingenious instrument of my own invention. I call it a craniometer, derived, as you may know, from cranium,' head, and 'meter,' a measure. I place it on the head o' the subject, and by adjusting these screws, which I turned mysel', I press these steel bands round the skull so that I get an accurate and pairfect configuration o' the extairnal configuration o' the occiput. Haud your skull doon.' Wilmot allowed him to apply the machine. When his head had been tightly compressed by the numerous steel bands that ran like the meridians of latitude and longitude up and down the interior of the craniometer, Adam released it by unfastening a catch that hinged the thing into two parts, and closing it again, placed it on the table and proceeded to study the mould of the skull that had been produced, Wilmot looking on, as he smoked, with amused interest. The phrenological reading that followed was not calculated to enlarge the bump of self-esteem of the victim. It was brutally frank and analytical. Wilmot, according to Adam's diagnosis, was a creature devoid of industry, conscientiousness, and a large proportion of the moral attributes that go to make an exemplary character. The set-off on the debit side was good power of observation, and a marked development of the organs of locality, language, and ality. caus "You would, but for your want of application, mak' a passable engineer, and could find your way about a country like this without a map, and that you would have the ability but not the application to construct." This was the jam with the nauseous powder. "And what about yourself?" asked Wilmot, still piqued by 7727 the brutal exposure of his sup- means that you have the proper inquisitiveness which, if rightly prompted and directed, leads to the acquisition of useful knowledge. Most women possess it, but they lack the sense of proportion, and 80 dissipate a great gift in the conseederation of unimportant "My own head," said Adam, "What about self-esteem?" 'My orrgan of self-esteem is present, but it is kept in check by the vara fine development o' the orrgans of caution and secretiveness, and particularly by the orrgan of comparison, which latter gives me the sense of proportion. Therefore, selfesteem, which in an ordinary head would lead to asserrtive conceit, in my case produces only proper self-respect." "I'm very fortunate in having the society of a man So well supplied with the qualities I lack," Wilmot remarked. "That you are, and if your though your brain is woefully Wilmot proceeded to exercise this faculty of inquisitiveness by seeking to know the real reason for Adam's objection to a colleague on the property; but the faculty was evidently not properly prompted and directed, for Adam fenced adroitly by diverting Wilmot with a narration of the methods employed to get rid of the objectionable assistants. They were such as justified Adam's claim to ingenuity. One undesirable was sent to spend three consecutive days down the shaft watching for the outburst of an imaginary spring that was to flood the mine. He deserted on the fourth day. Another, with a childish horror of explosives, was put to emptying, loading, and testing dynamite cartridges in dark and dismal underground recesses. A third, a person with no aptitude for figures, was kept weaving a Penelope web of mine accounts, real and fictitious, which Adam regularly unwove at night by proving them inaccurate, starting the distracted victim spinning afresh next day till he also deserted. The fourth seemed to have got fairly even with his tormentor-in fact, he scored 1 heavily. He had been set to formation against Adam for contravention by employing a native engine-driver, and had the satisfaction of seeing the old man fined the penalty of twenty pounds, of which the informer took half. What was worse, the directors sent a white engine - driver to the mine, but "I soon got rid of him," said Adam. Wilmot began to feel keenly curious to divine the real reason of the old man's objection to having white men on the property. The suggestion that they were not meet companions for one of his eclectic tastes did not satisfy Wilmot. He persevered in his pursuit of the mystery, and in the course of a few days was satisfied that the true and only explanation was to be found behind the carefully guarded door of the workshop, where Adam spent quite two-thirds of the working hours. Several times Wilmot attempted to gain admission, but Adam was emphatic in his refusal. It was his exclusive domain, he said, and hinted that he was engaged in perfecting an important mechanical discovery that if successful would, like all new inventions, revolutionise the department for which it was intended. If it proved a success, the world would know all about it in good time; if a failure, the less said about it the Adam spent the rest of the day down the shaft, where he exhausted a copious vocabulary in a futile effort to attract the attention of the absent enginedriver. When the Kafir returned, very drunk, well after dark, and hauled up the cage, the old man expended the remaining atom of his vitality in qualifying the Kafir for prompt admission to hospital. When he had recovered, the native laid a charge of assault against Adam, who was fined a pound, and countered by getting the Kafir a dozen lashes for deserting his post. As soon as his back was healed the native, better. This was all the reacting upon the superior know-sult of Wilmot's inquiries, and ledge of the mining regula- though he did not believe it, he tions possessed by sympathis- pretended he did, and openly ing fellow-countrymen, laid in- showed no further curiosity. (To be continued.) your exercise of the power of change of letters between what is to follow? It is for this reason, perhaps, that Paterfamilias, more wise than strictly honest in his generation, has a playful habit of entering Boy's name for years in advance at three or four Public Schools, reserving to himself, sub rosa of course, the power of making the final decision at the eleventh hour. Per contra the House-master, equally wise and not less honest in his generation, will commonly be found to have on his list the names of more boys than his house can possibly accommodate. It is a clear case of diamond cut diamond; but I am inclined to believe that my old friend Paterfamilias was the original transgressor, and that the House-master acts in self-defence. The same gentleman who fairly bubbles over with indignation because his boy is either "called up" in May, or "postponed" till January, "when I've got the confounded fellow's own letter to say that he will take him in September," is careful to suppress the fact that two or three other "confounded fellows" have for four years past been counting with more less confidence on Boy's presence in their respective houses in this identical September. How far the original inter or House-master and Parent constitutes a legal contract, I do not pretend to say. But we Anglo-Saxons are so jealous of our supposed rights, and so ready to invoke the protection of the Law Courts, that probably nothing but a guilty conscience or shall I call it a knowledge that his own house is made of glass?prevents Paterfamilias from assailing House - master, or, vice versa, House-master attacking Paterfamilias with legal stones. You might put it before your husband, Cornelia, that, inasmuch as four years hence he will have to make up his mind definitely one way or another, it will be to his advantage— for doubting Thomas is never entirely happy to do so at once, and to enter Boy's name for one house or one dormitory at one school. Just this much rope we may concede him, liberty to alter his determination if either scandal or grave loss of reputation on the one hand, or serious health considerations on the other, can be cited to justify the change. Both he and you may take it for granted, Cornelia, that for Boy, if he really means to work, the teaching power of every Public School, so far as Classics and Mathematics go, is good enough for all practical purposes. Accident or design may render the instruction in a special subject better at one given School than at another, but specialisation is a matter to be dealt with later on. I have purposely left to the last a third ground which may not |