The Stratagem and Other Stories

THE TESTAMENT OF MAGDALEN BLAIR PART I I IN my third term at Newnham I was already Profes- sor Blair's favourite pupil. Later, he wasted a great deal of time praising my slight figure and my piquant face, with its big round grey eyes and their long black lashes; but the first attraction was my singular gift. Few men, and, I believe, no other women, could approach me in one of the most priceless qualifications for scientific study, the faculty of apprehending minute differences. My memory was poor, extraordinarily so; I had the ut- most trouble to enter Cambridge at all. But I could ad- just a micrometer better than either students or profes- sor, and read a vernier with an accuracy to which none of them could even aspire. To this I added a faculty of subconscious calculation which was really uncanny. If I were engaged in keeping a solution between (say) 70° and 80° I had no need to watch the thermometer. Automatically I became aware that the mercury was close to the limit, and would go over from my other work and adjust it without a thought. More remarkable still, if any object were placed on my bench without my knowledge and then removed, I could, if asked within a few minutes, describe the object roughly, especially distinguishing the shape of its base and the degree of its opacity to heat and light. From these data I could make a pretty good guess at what the object was. This faculty of mine was repeatedly tested, and al- ways with success. Extreme sensitiveness to minute de- grees of heat was its obvious cause. I was also a singularly good thought-reader, even at this time. The other girls feared me absolutely. They