They parted to let him leave on that errand of mercy. Only Alice followed him.
Nitely met Alexander at the door of the balcony and turned him back toward the open and fresh air. Professor Johns came at that moment to join them all.
Nitely said, "Alexander. Professor Johns. The most extraordinary thing has occurred-"
"Yes," said the professor, his mild face beaming with joy. "The experiment has been a success. The principle is far more effective on the human being, in fact, than on any of my experimental animals." Noting Nitely's confusion, he explained what had occurred in brief sentences.
Nitely listened and muttered, "Strange, strange. There is a certain elusive familiarity about this." He pressed his forehead with the knuckles of both hands, but it did not help.
Alexander approached Alice gently, yearning to clasp her to his strong bosom, yet knowing that no gently nurtured girl could consent to such an expression of emotion from one who had not yet been forgiven.
He said, "Alice, my lost love, if in your heart you could find-"
But she shrank from him, avoiding his arms though they were outstretched only in supplication. She said, "Alexander, I drank the punch. It was your wish."
"You needn't have. I was wrong, wrong."
"But I did, and oh, Alexander, I can never be yours."
"Never be mine? But what does this mean?"
And Alice, seizing Nitely's arm, clutched it avidly. "My soul is intertwined indissolubly with that of Mr. Nitely, of Nicholas, I mean. My passion for him-that is, my passion for marriage with him-cannot be withstood. It racks my being."
"You are false?" cried Alexander, unbelieving.
"You are cruel to say 'false,' " said Alice, sobbing. "I cannot help it."
"No, indeed," said Professor Johns, who had been listening to this in the greatest consternation, after having made his expknation to Nitely. "She could scarcely help it. It is simply an endocrinological manifestation."
"Indeed that is so," said Nitely, who was struggling with endocrinological manifestations of his own. "There, there, my-my dear." He patted Alice's head in a most fatherly way and when she held her enticing face up toward his, swooningly, he considered whether it might not be a fatherly thing- nay, even a neighborly thing-to press those lips with his own, in pure fashion.
But Alexander, out of his heart's despair, cried, "You are false, false-false as Cressid," and rushed from the room.
And Nitely would have gone after him, but that Alice had seized him about the neck and bestowed upon his slowly melting lips a kiss that was not daughterly in the least.
It was not even neighborly.
They arrived at Nitely's small bachelor cottage with its chaste sign of justice of the peace in Old English letters, its air of melancholy peace, its neat serenity, its small stove on which the small kettle was quickly placed by Nitely's left hand (his right arm being firmly in the clutch of Alice, who, with a shrewdness beyond her years, chose that as one sure method of rendering impossible a sudden bolt through the door on his part).
Nitely's study could be seen through the open door of the dining room, its walls lined with gentle books of scholarship and joy.
Again Nitely's hand (his left hand) went to his brow. "My dear," he said to Alice, "it is amazing the way-if you would release your hold the merest trifle, my child, so that circulation might be restored-the way in which I persist in imagining that all this has taken place before."
"Surely never before, my dear Nicholas," said Alice, bending her fair head upon his shoulder, and smiling at him with a shy tenderness that made her beauty as bewitching as moonlight upon still waters, "could there have been so wonderful a modem-day magician as our wise Professor Johns, so up-to-date a sorcerer."
"So up-to-date a-" Nitely had started so violently as to lift the fair Alice a full inch from the floor. "Why, surely that must be it. Dickens take me, if that's not it." (For on rare occasions, and under the stress of overpowering emotions, Nitely used strong language.)
"Nicholas. What is it? You frighten me, my cherubic one."
But Nitely walked rapidly into his study, and she was forced to run with him. His face was white, his lips firm, as he reached for a volume from the shelves and reverently blew the dust from it.
"Ah," he said with contrition, "how I have neglected the innocent joys of my younger days. My child, in view of this continuing incapacity of my right arm, would you be so kind as to turn the pages until I tell you to stop?"
Together they managed, in such a tableau of preconnubial bliss as is rarely seen, he holding the book with his left hand, she turning the pages slowly with her right.
"I am right!" Nitely said with sudden force. "Professor Johns, my dear fellow, do come here. This is the most amazing coincidence-a frightening example of the mysterious unfelt power that must sport with us on occasion for some hidden purpose."
Professor Johns, who had prepared his own tea and was sipping it patiently, as befitted a discreet gentleman of intellectual habit in the presence of two ardent lovers who had suddenly retired to the next room, called out, "Surely you do not wish my presence?"
"But I do, sir. I would fain consult one of your scientific attainments."
"But you are in a position-"
Alice screamed, faintly, "Professor!"
"A thousand pardons, my dear," said Professor Johns, entering. "My cobwebby old mind is filled with ridiculous fancies. It is long since I-" and he pulled mightily at his tea (which he had made strong) and was himself again at once.