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THE CAUSE AND THE CAUSER. 25 post at once and took another peep-but all was as before. The shapes stood still in the same place. They had neither given themselves nor been taken away-there was no fresh light on the subject. What was to be done? The professor began to face the idea that he must examine them himself. Suppose he laid hold of one with his pincers, for instance ?-In that case it could not, at any rate, fasten itself on his head !-Just then, however, there was another fanning of the air, announcing another visitor. Another butterfly was in search of food, another proboscis plunged into the nectary. Was the creature larger or more active than the last ? Had its proboscis more strength, or did it uncoil with more heedless violence ? Who shall say ? Certain it is that in the process it struck upwards against the round protuberance; there was a jar and crack in the delicate machinery, and out came a foreign body with its sticky ball. The professor had seen part of the process and surmised the rest. He would make sure, however. When the butterfly was about to fly off, therefore,