“Your Professor Meschines——”
“On the contrary, he is a most matter-of-fact old gentleman.”
“Do be quiet, and listen to me! When my mamma was a girl in school, there were two boys there,—it was a boy-and-girls’ school,—and they were great friends. But they both fell in love with my mamma——”
“I can understand that,” put in Freeman.
“How do you know I am like my mamma? Well, as I was saying, they both fell in love with her, and quarrelled with each other, and had a fight. The boy that won the fight is the man to whose house I am going.”
“Then he didn’t marry your mamma?”
“Oh, no; that was only a childish affair, and she married another man.”
“The one who got thrashed?”
“Of course not. But the one who got thrashed is your Professor Meschines.”
“I see! The poor old professor! And he has remained a bachelor all his life.”