“Keep cool, professor. Of course I didn’t mean anything of the sort. I must have somebody to joke with, now that Ephraim has left me and returned ‘hum to the farm,’ and I sometimes forget your age.”
“Ephraim Gallup was not to blame for going home. I presume he decided it was his only chance of getting home with his life, for you were continually getting into scrapes, and the scrapes grew worse and worse as you progressed.”
“He went home because his ‘folks’ succeeded in getting an appealing letter to him at last. His mother could not endure the thought that her boy was ‘racin’ up an’ daown the universe from one end uv creation to t’other. But you did not answer my question. What do you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, I was followed everywhere to-day, from the time I left the house till I returned.”
“Is that all?”
“Is that all! I should say it was quite enough. Every time I took a different ’bus line, a little, dried-up sort of a man, with a melancholy mustache that curled around the corners of his mouth and an eye that never by any chance seemed to be looking in my direction, changed with me. At Queen’s Cross I got mad. I demanded to know what he was following me around for. I grabbed him by the shoulders and talked fiercely to him. Then I was ashamed of myself, for he seemed nearly frightened to death, and he begged my pardon twenty times, saying he was out to see the sights, and he would take particular care not to ride on another ’bus with me.”
“Well?”
“Well, he was not on the ’bus when I started back, and I began to think I had made a fool of myself. There was a garrulous old lady, dressed like a fright, with cork-screw curls, out-of-date bonnet, black mits and spotted veil. She said she was on a ‘tower,’ and she was bound to see all the sights. She was a character, and she made fun for me. She said she was traveling alone, as her man was too scared to leave the hotel where they were stopping. I volunteered to show her some of the sights, for I thought I could have a barrel of fun with her. And so I showed her around.”
“Very kind of you, Frank; very kind.”