"I shall be glad to hear what it is."
"You see, I thought I would ask you if you were courting Mees Ruth Canby, if you mean to make her your wife?"
I dropped into the nearest chair—I had been standing—in sheer amazement. To be asked my intentions in regard to the young woman from Macy's was most astonishing, and by Prof. Poppendorf, too!
"Did Miss Canby send you here to speak to me?" I asked, considerably annoyed.
"Oh, no! she knows nothing about it."
"I can't understand what you have to do in the matter, Prof. Poppendorf. You are neither her father nor her brother."
"Oh, ja, you are quite right."
"Then why do you come to me with such a question?"
"I thought I would like to know myself."
"I deny your right to speak to me on the subject," I said, stiffly. "If now you had a good reason."