“I felt drawn to her when she was most serious.  I told her I had suffered much from doubt, and asked her if she had; and she said yes, when she was young; but that she had had, in her life, rare intervals when she believed she held communion with God, and on those rare periods she had rested in the long intermissions.  She laughed, and the tears came to her eyes, all together; she was quick, and all-alive, and so courteous.  When she gave me a book she said, ’May I write your whole name? and may I say “from your friend"?’

“Then she hurried on her bonnet, and walked to the station with me; and her round face, with the blond hair and the light-blue eyes, seemed to me to become beautiful as she talked.

“In Edinburgh I asked for a photograph of Mary Somerville, and the young man behind the counter replied, ‘I don’t know who it is.’

“In London I asked at a bookstore, which the Murrays recommended, for a photograph of Mrs. Somerville and of Sir George Airy, and the man said if they could be had in London he would get them; and then he asked, ‘Are they English?’ and I informed him that Sir George Airy was the astronomer royal!

* * * * *

“‘The Glasgow College for Girls.’  Seeing a sign of this sort, I rang the door-bell of the house to which it was attached, entered, and was told the lady was at home.  As I waited for her, I took up the ‘Prospectus,’ and it was enough,—­’music, dancing, drawing, needlework, and English’ were the prominent features, and the pupils were children.  All well enough,—­but why call it a college?

“When the lady superintendent came in, I told her that I had supposed it was for more advanced students, and she said, ’Oh, it is for girls up to twenty; one supposes a girl is finished by twenty.’

“I asked, as modestly as I could, ’Have you any pupils in Latin and mathematics?’ and she said, ’No, it’s for girls, you know.  Dr. M. hopes we shall have some mathematics next year.’  ‘And,’ I asked, ‘some Latin?’ ’Yes, Dr. M. hopes we shall have some Latin; but I confess I believe Latin and mathematics all bosh; give them modern languages and accomplishments.  I suppose your school is for professional women.’

“I told her no; that the daughters of our wealthiest people demand learning; that it would scarcely be considered ‘good society’ when the women had neither Latin nor mathematics.

“‘Oh, well,’ she said, ‘they get married here so soon.’

“When I asked her if they had lady teachers, she said ’Oh, no [as if that would ruin the institution]; nothing but first-class masters.’

“It was clear that the women taught the needlework.”

CHAPTER XI

PAPERS—­SCIENCE [1874]—­THE DENVER ECLIPSE [1878]—­COLORS OF STARS

“The dissemination of information in regard to science and to scientific investigations relieves the scientist from the small annoyances of extreme ignorance.