“His initials? I don’t care anything about his initials. I can’t call him by his initials. What do they stand for?”
“Well, you see, his father was a physician, and he—he—well he was an idolater of his profession, and he—well, he was a very eccentric man, and—”
“What do they stand for! What are you shuffling about?”
“They—well they stand for Spinal Meningitis. His father being a phy—”
“I never heard such an infamous name! Nobody can ever call a person that—a person they love. I wouldn’t call an enemy by such a name. It sounds like an epithet.” After a moment, she added with a kind of consternation, “Why, it would be my name! Letters would come with it on.”
“Yes—Mrs. Spinal Meningitis Snodgrass.”
“Don’t repeat it—don’t; I can’t bear it. Was the father a lunatic?”
“No, that is not charged.”
“I am glad of that, because that is transmissible. What do you think was the matter with him, then?”
“Well, I don’t really know. The family used to run a good deal to idiots, and so, maybe—”