"Why, Professor," said Alice, with gentle affection. "It would be delightful to have you try," and she squeezed Alexander's hand shyly.
"I do not mean," said the professor, coughing to hide his embarrassment, "that I would personally attempt to reproduce-or, rather, to duplicate- the conditions that created the natural secretion of the hormone. I mean, instead, that I could inject the hormone itself by hypodermic or even by oral ingestion, since it is a steroid hormone. I have, you see," and here he removed his glasses and polished them proudly, "isolated and purified the hormone."
Alexander sat erect. "Professor! And you have said nothing?"
"I must know more about it first."
"Do you mean to say," said Alice, her lovely brown eyes shimmering with delight, "that you can make people fed the wonderful delight and heaven-surpassing tenderness of true love by means of a ... a pill?"
The professor said, "I can indeed duplicate the emotion to which you refer in those rather cloying terms."
"Then why don't you?"
Alexander raised a protesting hand. "Now, darling, your ardor leads you astray. Our own happiness and forthcoming nuptials make you forget certain facts of life. If a married person were, by mistake, to accept this hormone-"
Professor Johns said, with a trace of hauteur, "Let me explain right now
that my hormone, or my amatogenic principle, as I call it-" (for he, in common with many practical scientists, enjoyed a proper scorn for the rarefied niceties of classical philology).
"Call it a love-philtre, Professor," said Alice, with a melting sigh.
"My amatogenic cortical principle," said Professor Johns, sternly, "has no effect on married individuals. The hormone cannot work if inhibited by other factors, and being married is certainly a factor that inhibits love."
"Why, so I have heard," said Alexander, gravely, "but I intend to disprove that callous belief in the case of my own Alice."
"Alexander," said Alice. "My love."
The professor said, "I mean that marriage inhibits extramarital love."
Alexander said, "Why, it has come to my ears that sometimes it does not."
Alice said, shocked, "Alexander!"
"Only in rare instances, my dear, among those who have not gone to college."
The professor said, "Marriage may not inhibit a certain paltry sexual attraction, or tendencies toward minor trifling, but true love, as Miss Sanger expressed the emotion, is something which cannot blossom when the memory of a stern wife and various unattractive children hobbles the subconscious."
"Do you mean to say," said Alexander, "that if you were to feed your love-philtre-beg pardon, your amatogenic principle-to a number of people indiscriminately, only the unmarried individuals would be affected?"
"That is right, I have experimented on certain animals which, though not going through the conscious marriage rite, do form monogamous attachments. Those with the attachments already formed are not affected."
"Then, Professor, I have a perfectly splendid idea. Tomorrow night is the night of the Senior Dance here at college. There will be at least fifty couples present, mostly unmarried. Put your philtre in the punch."
"What? Are you mad?"
But Alice had caught fire. "Why, it's a heavenly idea, Professor. To think that all my friends will feel as I feel! Professor, you would be an angel from heaven. -But oh, Alexander, do you suppose the feelings might be a trifle uncontrolled? Some of our college chums are a little wild and if, in the heat of discovery of love, they should, well, kiss-"
Professor Johns said, indignantly, "My dear Miss Sanger. You must not allow your imagination to become overheated. My hormone induces only those feelings which lead to marriage and not to the expression of anything that might be considered indecorous."
"I'm sorry," murmured Alice, in confusion. "I should remember, Professor, that you are the most highly moral man I know-excepting always dear Alexander-and that no scientific discovery of yours could possibly lead to immorality."
She looked so woebegone that the professor forgave her at once.
"Then you'll do it, Professor?" urged Alexander. "After all, assuming there will be a sudden urge for mass marriage afterward, I can take care of that by having Nicholas Nitely, an old and valued friend of the family, present on some pretext. He is a Justice of the Peace and can easily arrange for such things as licenses and so on."
"I could scarcely agree," said the professor, obviously weakening, "to perform an experiment without the consent of those experimented upon. It would be unethical."
"But you would be bringing only joy to them. You would be contributing to the moral atmosphere of the college. For surely, in the absence of overwhelming pressure toward marriage, it sometimes happens even in college that the pressure of continuous propinquity breeds a certain danger of- of-"
"Yes, there is that," said the professor. "Well, I shall try a dilute solution. After all, the results may advance scientific knowledge tremendously and, as you say, it will also advance morality."
Alexander said, "And, of course, Alice and I will drink the punch, too."
Alice said, "Oh, Alexander, surely such love as ours needs no artificial aid."
"But it would not be artificial, my soul's own. According to the professor, your love began as a result of just such a hormonal effect, induced, I admit, by more customary methods."
Alice blushed rosily. "But then, my only love, why the need for the repetition?"
"To place us beyond all vicissitudes of Fate, my cherished one."
"Surely, my adored, you don't doubt my love."
"No, my heart's charmer, but-"
"But? Is it that you do not trust me, Alexander?"
"Of course I trust you, Alice, but-"
"But? Again but!" Alice rose, furious. "If you cannot trust me, sir, perhaps I had better leave-" And she did leave indeed, while the two men stared after her, stunned.
Professor Johns said, "I am afraid my hormone has, quite indirectly, been the occasion of spoiling a marriage rather than of causing one."
Alexander swallowed miserably, but his pride upheld him. "She will come back," he said, hollowly. "A love such as ours is not so easily broken."
The Senior Dance was, of course, the event of the year. The young men shone and the young ladies glittered. The music lilted and the dancing feet touched the ground only at intervals. Joy was unrestrained.
Or, rather, it was unrestrained in most cases. Alexander Dexter stood in one corner, eyes hard, expression icily bleak. Straight and handsome he might be, but no young woman approached him. He was known to belong
fcp Alice Sanger, and under such circumstances, no college girl would dream Of, poaching. Yet where was Alice?
'She had not come with Alexander and Alexander's pride prevented him from searching for her. From under grim eyelids, he could only watch the circulating couples cautiously.
Professor Johns, in formal clothes that did not fit although made to measure, approached him. He said, "I will add my hormone to the punch shortly before the midnight toast. Is Mr. Nitely still here?"
"I saw him a moment ago. In his capacity as chaperon he was busily engaged in making certain that the proper distance between dancing couples was maintained. Four fingers, I believe, at the point of closest approach. Mr. Nitely was most diligently making the necessary measurements."
"Very good. Oh, I had neglected to ask: Is the punch alcoholic? Alcohol would affect the workings of the amatogenic principle adversely."