"May I come in, Mamma?"
"Yes, what is it? Here's Aunt Constance."
"How are you, Aunt? I came to see how you are, Mamma."
The undergraduate was a tall boy of just twenty, with a pale, gentle face and dressed with the ultra-smartness of a youth who is "in the swim" at Leiden.
"Pretty well, my boy."
"I shall go back to Leiden to-morrow, Mamma."
"Oh?"
"Yes; and I shall probably not be home for some time. I mean to work hard...."
"That's right."
"There's really nothing else to do but work. It's so slow here, Auntie, now that Emilie's gone. Otto's all right, with Louise. She missed him badly, while he was in India. Funny brothers and sisters, aren't we? So exaggerated.... Well, Mamma, I'll say good-bye: I shall start the first thing in the morning."