“Why not her grandparents?”
“Give it up,” said Paul. “Take things as they are.”
Now, the result of this decidedly mixed but suggestive conversation was to excite curiosity in both the Doctor and Paul. Not that they formed a conspiracy to learn about Miss Cultus’ forbears; quite the contrary. Simply by friction in time they learned something of the natural causes which had produced her charming personality, so attractive to all who met her.
That they both had been led to respect and admire her upon short acquaintance was only too evident,—on the surface. What was not quite so evident, for neither of them had said so, was that each had noticed her devotion to her mother, constant, ever thoughtful, as if to make her appear to the best advantage: as to her father, she simply idolized him.
Some of the items they learned had best be stated at once, for her ancestors, in immediate relationship, certainly did cast their shadows before; and the blending of the shades and shadows later on in her life, formed a character that was lovely and inspiring.
II
HOW THE PROFESSOR WAS WON
FEW who knew Mrs. Cultus in after years, when as an active woman of the world she displayed much tact dominated by kindly consideration for others, would have suspected the peculiar phases of development through which she passed in younger days, during the immature period of youth when the same natural tendencies took different forms, and were so different in degree. From one point of view the difference in degree produced a difference in kind—she appeared to be a different sort of woman. What she did when young was often mistaken for selfishness alone, whereas the same natural tendency, operating as reasonable ambition, after finding its true sphere, exerted a far nobler activity, profoundly different in both degree and kind. Not a few expressed surprise when her ambition to lead became coupled with a determination to help others along at the same time. Always ambitious, and with strong social instincts, she read the book of life rather than literary productions; but when she did deign to peruse a popular novel, her criticism punctured the absurdities of modern snap-shot incongruity. She was never selfish at heart, but she certainly did have a way of using the world without abusing it, personally; and her own way of expressing herself.
As to the Professor, her husband, he found himself going to be married without having fully analyzed the case.
Charming manners and cultivated tastes, largely inherited from antecedents in the professional walks of life, had led Professor Cultus to fascinate and charm not a few during his youth and early manhood,—what more natural! He was slow however to realize that in so doing he might encounter another, gifted as himself yet of an entirely different type, complementary; and so it came to pass.
While returning from a congress of anthropologists which met on the Continent, where there had been much discussion of the genus homo through many stages of development, the Professor was fated to be himself taught a lesson in anthropology which never after lost its hold upon him. It gave him much subject for thought, but not exactly of the kind suitable for a technical paper before the next congress.