Her husband tenderly kissed her cheek,--her right cheek,--not that
which bore the impress of the crimson hand.

The next day Aylmer apprised his wife of a plan that he had formed
whereby he might have opportunity for the intense thought and constant
watchfulness which the proposed operation would require, while
Georgiana, likewise, would enjoy the perfect repose essential to its
success. They were to seclude themselves in the extensive apartments
occupied by Aylmer as a laboratory, and where, during his toilsome
youth, he had made discoveries in the elemental powers of nature that
had roused the admiration of all the learned societies in Europe.
Seated calmly in this laboratory, the pale philosopher had
investigated the secrets of the highest cloud-region and of the
profoundest mines; he had satisfied himself of the causes that kindled
and kept alive the fires of the volcano; and had explained the mystery
of fountains, and how it is that they gush forth, some so bright and
pure, and others with such rich medicinal virtues, from the dark bosom
of the earth. Here, too, at an earlier period, he had studied the
wonders of the human frame, and attempted to fathom the very process
by which Nature assimilates all her precious influences from earth and
air, and from the spiritual world, to create and foster man, her
masterpiece. The latter pursuit, however, Aylmer had long laid aside
in unwilling recognition of the truth--against which all seekers
sooner or later stumble--that our great creative Mother, while she
amuses us with apparently working in the broadest sunshine, is yet
severely careful to keep her own secrets, and, in spite of her
pretended openness, shows us nothing but results. She permits us,
indeed, to mar, but seldom to mend, and, like a jealous patentee, on
no account to make. Now, however, Aylmer resumed these half-forgotten