"Yes, I remember reading about it in the papers," said Mrs. Stuart. "Possibly she lost her hair dye in the panic."
"I'd look pretty with white hair," laughed Grace. "It's the fashion now to wear tufts of white hair among your own."
"If a cannibal cooked you à la fricassee, it wouldn't matter how you looked!" growled Mrs. Stuart.
"Talking of desert islands," said the professor thoughtfully, "a very interesting sociological problem might be solved if one had the time to be shipwrecked and the courage to put my theory to the test."
"What theory is that?" demanded Grace, with languid curiosity.
The professor peered dubiously at both women over his gold-rimmed spectacles, as if questioning their ability to grasp intellectual problems of any nature. Then pedantically, pompously, as if addressing a college class, he went on:
"Ethnology and sociology, as you are perhaps aware, are pet sciences with me. I have always taken keen interest in studying man in his relations to his fellow man, particularly in his relations with women."
He paused, as if afraid he had said something indelicate. Mrs. Stuart sat up, made her pillows more comfortable, and said, with a laugh:
"This sounds interesting. Go on, professor!"
Thus encouraged, the professor continued: