“All the insects?”
“Every blessed one.”
“Why did he call it Daddy Long Legs, then?”
Cruikshank seized the opportunity.
“That was what its long legs suggested to him.”
“But why Daddy?” said Bellwattle very quickly.
Cruikshank dipped into his third cup of tea, drowning all possible answer.
“Why Daddy?” she repeated.
“Because,” said I, “Adam was the father of all living.”
For the moment Cruikshank forgot his table manners and choked. It took a great deal of serious assurance on our part then to convince Bellwattle that we were in earnest. For we were in earnest. No man is so serious, or so put upon his mettle as when a woman bows to him for knowledge. There comes that look into his face as well I remember would creep into the face of the master when I was at school. No doubt it is the same now. The vanity of men does not alter in ten years, or in ten thousand for that matter.