THE INNER HOUSE
BY
WALTER BESANT
AUTHOR OF
"THE WORLD WENT VERY WELL THEN" "FOR FAITH AND FREEDOM"
ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN" "HERR PAULUS" ETC.
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1888
PROLOGUE.
AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION.
"Professor!" cried the Director, rushing to meet their guest andlecturer as the door was thrown open, and the great man appeared, calmand composed, as if there was nothing more in the wind than an ordinaryScientific Discourse. "You are always welcome, my friend, alwayswelcome"—the two enthusiasts for science wrung hands—"and never morewelcome than to-night. Then the great mystery is to be solved at last.The Theatre is crammed with people. What does it mean? You must tell mebefore you go in."
The Physicist smiled.
"I came to a conviction that I was on the true line five years ago," hesaid. "It is only within the last six months that I have demonstratedthe thing to a certainty. I will tell you, my friend," he whispered,"before we go in."
Then he advanced and shook hands with the President.
"Whatever the importance of your Discovery, Professor," said thePresident, "we are fully sensible of the honor you have done us inbringing it before an English audience first of all, and especiallybefore an audience of the Royal Institution."
"Ja, Ja, Herr President. But I give my Discovery to all the world atthis same hour. As for myself, I announce it to my very good friendsof the Royal Institution. Why not to my other very good friends of theRoyal Society? Because it is a thing which belongs to the whole world,and not to scientific men only."
It was in the Library of the Royal Institution. The President andCouncil of the Institution were gathered together to receive theirillustrious lecturer, and every face was touched with interrogation andanxiety. What was this Great Discovery?
For six months there had appeared, from time to time, mysterioustelegrams in the papers, all connected with this industriousProfessor's laboratory. Nothing definite, nothing certain: it waswhispered that a new discovery, soon about to be announced, wouldentirely change the relations of man to man; of nation to nation.Those who professed to be in the secret suggested that it might alterall governments and abolish all laws. Why they said that I know not,because certainly nobody was admitted to the laboratory, and theProfessor had no confidant. This big-headed man, with the enormousbald forehead and the big glasses on his fat nose—it was long andbroad as well as fat—kept his own counsel. Yet, in some way, peoplewere perfectly certain that something wonderful was coming. So, whenRoger Bacon made his gunpowder, the monks might have whispered toeach other, only from the smell which came through the key-hole, thatnow the Devil would at last be met upon his own ground. The telegramswere continued with exasperating pertinacity, until over the wholecivilized world the eyes of all who loved science were turned upon thatmodest laboratory in the little University of Ganzweltweisst am Rhein.What was coming from it? One does not go so far as to say that allinterest in contemporary business, politics, art, and letters ceased;but it is quite certain that every morning and every evening, wheneverybody opened his paper, his first thought was to look for news fromGanzweltweisst am Rhein.
But the days passed by, and no news came. This was especially ha