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"I am delighted," began Basil, but with a worried face, "but these
red-tape negotiations are so terribly chancy that I really can't
advise you to build on hope, only to be hurled down into
bitterness. I've known men, and good men like your brother, come
nearer than this and be disappointed. Of course, if it is true--"
"If it is true," said the woman fiercely, "it means that people who
have never lived may make an attempt at living."
Even as she spoke the professor came into the room still with the
dazed look in his eyes.
"Is it true?" asked Basil, with burning eyes.
"Not a bit true," answered Chadd after a moment's bewilderment.
"Your argument was in three points fallacious."
"What do you mean?" demanded Grant.
"Well," said the professor slowly, "in saying that you could
possess a knowledge of the essence of Zulu life distinct from--"
"Oh! confound Zulu life," cried Grant, with a burst of laughter. "I
mean, have you got the post?"
"You mean the post of keeper of the Asiatic manuscripts," he said,
opening his eye with childlike wonder. "Oh, yes, I got that. But
the real objection to your argument, which has only, I admit,
occurred to me since I have been out of the room, is that it does
not merely presuppose a Zulu truth apart from the facts, but
infers that the discovery of it is absolutely impeded by the
facts."
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