Chapter 9 - Page 2

bottles in front of her. The contents of
the flask were boiling furiously, while a villainous
smell filled the room. Clara lounged in an arm-chair
with her feet upon a second one, a blue-covered book in
her hand, and a huge map of the British Islands spread
across her lap. "Hullo!" cried the Doctor, blinking and
sniffing, "where's the breakfast?"

"Oh, didn't you order it?" asked Ida.

"I! No; why should I?" He rang the bell. "Why have
you not laid the breakfast, Jane?"

"If you please, sir, Miss Ida was a workin' at the
table."

"Oh, of course, Jane," said the young lady calmly.
"I am so sorry. I shall be ready to move in a few
minutes."

"But what on earth are you doing, Ida?" asked the
Doctor. "The smell is most offensive. And, good
gracious, look at the mess which you have made upon the
cloth! Why, you have burned a hole right through."

"Oh, that is the acid," Ida answered contentedly.
"Mrs. Westmacott said that it would burn holes."

"You might have taken her word for it without
trying," said her father dryly.

"But look here, pa! See what the book says: 'The
scientific mind takes nothing upon trust. Prove all
things!' I have proved that."

"You certainly have. Well, until breakfast is ready
I'll glance over the Times. Have you seen it?"

"The Times? Oh, dear me, this is it which I have
under my spirit-lamp. I am afraid there is some acid
upon that too, and it is rather damp and torn. Here it
is."

The Doctor took the bedraggled paper with a rueful
face. "Everything seems to be wrong to-day," he
remarked. "What is this sudden enthusiasm about
chemistry, Ida?"

"Oh, I am trying to live up to Mrs. Westmacott's
teaching."

"Quite right! quite right!" said he, though perhaps
with less heartiness than he had shown the day before.
"Ah, here is breakfast at last!"

But nothing was comfortable that morning. There were
eggs without egg-spoons, toast which was leathery from
being kept, dried-up rashers, and grounds in the coffee.
Above all, there was that dreadful smell which pervaded
everything and gave a horrible twang to every mouthful.

"I don't wish to put a damper upon your studies,
Ida," said the Doctor, as he pushed back his chair. "But
I do think it would be better if you did your chemical
experiments a little later in the day."

"But Mrs. Westmacott says that women should rise
early, and do their work before breakfast."

"Then they should choose some other room besides the
breakfast-room." The Doctor was becoming just a little
ruffled. A turn in the open air would soothe him, he
thought. "Where are my boots?" he asked.

But they were not