Then the family plans had to be discussed. The ex-giant was very happy in his professorship, and talked enthusiastically of the courses that he was to give, and an annotated text-book that he had been asked to edit.
“Then there is the question of my library,” he said. “Have you any idea of the size of a college professor’s library?”
Wendell said he hadn’t.
“Well, I haven’t either,” said the Professor. “But I’ve been shopping for a library this morning, and I talked with a very intelligent second-hand-bookstore man. He said five feet was the standard length for a student’s library, and he showed me several five-foot-lengths that had been turned in to him by college students—in excellent condition. Some of them, indeed, looked as if they had never been opened. I bought ten lengths. Don’t you think fifty feet of library should be about right for a professor, if five feet is required for a student?”
Wendell and the family, after some intelligent discussion of this point, agreed with him.
Wendell was feeling quite at home with his new acquaintances by this time. The Professor sat in a big Morris chair with the Beauteous Maiden on a cricket at his feet, while his hand strayed lovingly among her curls. The Stepsister perched with one arm around the Professor’s neck. On the sofa, the motherly Stepmother sat beside Wendell and leaned over occasionally to pat his hand. It was altogether a charming scene of family happiness, such as is too rare, alas! in these modern days of automobiling, jazz, and summer camps. Wendell was thinking how happy they all seemed, when the Stepsister suddenly said,
“You’ll have me for bridesmaid, won’t you, dearest?”
“Of course, dear, if Wendell agrees with me,” said the Beauteous Maiden, smiling.
Poor Wendell! With all his heart he wished that he had never become involved in his heroic role. Of course, as Deliverer, he had to marry the Beauteous Maiden, but he did not conceal from himself the fact that he had never really fancied her. “Even when she was a Frog,” he thought, “I didn’t want her around.” He was thoroughly unhappy.