Mermaid looked after him uneasily. Suddenly she called out, “Dickie!”
He returned, but with a certain effect of distant politeness.
“Come over after supper and I’ll quiz you on the chemistry best I can,” she offered.
He relaxed somewhat. “All right,” he agreed, magnanimously. “I’ll walk back with you,” he went on, as if uttering an after-thought.
Mermaid acquiesced. As they entered the yard they met Ho Ha coming out of the house. He stopped, looking at them happily and mysteriously, and propounded a riddle to Mermaid.
“If an uncle of yours,” he said, “were to marry your aunt, what relation would that make your uncle’s nephew to your aunt’s niece?”
“Friends once removed,” said Mermaid. “Oh, Uncle Ho, I’m tickled to death!”
XIV
At sixteen Mermaid was not adequately to be described by Longfellow’s lines about the maiden
Standing with reluctant feet