“I have been working very hard,” he admitted.

“But why?” she murmured.  “You are young.  Surely there is plenty of time?  Is it because the thoughts have come to you and you dared not daily with them?  Or is it because you are like every one else—­in such a terrible hurry to become rich and famous?”

He shook his head.

“It is not that,” he said.  “I have no thought of either.  Alas!” he added, looking into her eyes, “I lack the great incentive!”

“Then why is it?” she whispered.

“You must not ask our young friend too many questions,” the professor interrupted, a trifle impatiently.  “Tell me, Mr. Burton, has there been any change—­er—­in your condition?”

Burton shivered for a moment.

“None at present,” he admitted.  “It is scarcely due as yet.”

Mr. Cowper drew his chair a little nearer.  His face betokened the liveliest interest.  Edith stood in the window for a moment and then sank into a chair in the background.

“With reference to your last remark,” the professor went on, “it has yet, I think, to be proved that these beans are of equal potency.  You understand me, I am sure, Mr. Burton?  I mean that it does not in the least follow that because one of them is able to keep you in an abnormal condition for two months, the next one will keep you there for the same period.”

Burton was frankly startled.

“Is there anything about that in the translation, sir?” he asked.

“There is this sentence which I will read to you,” the professor pronounced, drawing a roll of paper from his pocket and adjusting his spectacles.  “I have now a more or less correct translation of the sheets you left with me, a copy of which is at your disposal.  Here it is:—­’The formula is now enunciated and proved.  The secret which has defied the sages of the world since the ages of twilight, has yielded itself to me, the nineteenth seeker after the truth in one direct line.  One slight detail alone baffles me.  So far as I have gone at present, the constituent parts, containing always the same elements and producing, therefore, the same effect, appear in variable dimensions or potencies, for reasons which at present elude me.  Of my formula there is no longer any doubt.  This substance which I have produced shall purify and make holy the world.’”

The professor looked up from his paper.

“Our interesting friend,” he remarked, “seems to have been interrupted at this point, probably by the commencement of that illness which had, unfortunately, a fatal conclusion.  Yet the meaning of what he writes is perfectly clear.  This substance, consolidated, I believe, into what you term a bean, is not equally distributed.  Therefore, I take it that you may remain in your present condition for a longer or shorter period of time.  The potency of the first—­er—­dose, is nothing to go by.  You have, however, already learned how to render your present condition eternal.”