"I smiled. 'Oh, I see you know who my great-aunt was,' I said.
"'I know her,' he said.
"'Ah—perhaps you are unaware that my great-aunt is not now living.'
"'I know her,' he repeated, obstinately.
"I bowed. What a crank he was!
"'What do you study? You don't fiddle away all your time, do you?' he asked.
"Now that was just what I did, but I was not pleased to have Miss Wyeth know it. Although my time was chiefly spent in killing time, I had once, in a fit of energy, succeeded in writing some verses 'To a Tomtit,' so I evaded a humiliating confession by saying that I had done a little work in ornithology.
"'Good!' cried the professor, beaming all over. 'I knew you were a fellow-scientist. Possibly you are a brother-member of the Boston Dodo Society of Pythagorean Research. Are you a dodo?'
"I shook my head. 'No, I am not a dodo.'
"'Only a jay?'