I lunched at my lodgings on the Quai Malthus, and I had but little
appetite, having fed upon such an unexpected variety of emotions
during the morning.

Now, although I was already heels over head in love, I do not believe
that loss of appetite was the result of that alone. I was slowly
beginning to realize what my recent attitude might cost me, not only
in an utter collapse of my scientific career, and the consequent
material ruin which was likely to follow, but in the loss of all my
friends at home. The Zoological Society of Bronx Park and the
Smithsonian Institution of Washington had sent me as their trusted
delegate, leaving it entirely to me to choose the subject on which I
was to speak before the International Congress. What, then, would be
their attitude when they learned that I had chosen to uphold the
dangerous theory of the existence of the ux.

Would they repudiate me and send another delegate to replace me? Would
they merely wash their hands of me and let me go to my own
destruction?

"I will know soon enough," thought I, "for this morning's proceedings
will have been cabled to New York ere now, and read at the
breakfast-tables of every old, moss-grown naturalist in America before
I see the Countess d'Alzette this evening." And I drew from my pocket
the roll of paper which she had given me, and, lighting a cigar, lay
back in my chair to read it.