"How happy your success makes me, my dear boy!" enthused Tan Trum, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "How very happy! A great burden has been removed from us all. You need no longer be debarred—er—debarred from lifelong bliss. Loa has been faithful to you, my boy!"
"Yes, I have been faithful!" echoed the blushing damsel, with her wrinkled face downcast.
"We well realize your position, my dear friend," continued the Professor, beaming upon me in apparent unconsciousness of my growing consternation. "Weighed down by cares of State, you have had no time to pay us a visit. Besides, it would be unseemly for a man in your high position to visit our humble quarters. To be sure, you might have summoned us here, but perhaps you hesitated, fearing to shock us too greatly. Is that not so, my boy?"
"Yes, that is so!" I groaned.
"You see, Loa," the Professor went on, turning in a congratulatory manner to his daughter, "you see what a considerate lover you have! I always said that you were lucky, my dear. Yes, you are lucky, both of you! I wish you many, many happy years, blessed by—"
In desperation, I was ready to clutch at any straw. Remembering my last escape from the persistent pair, I interrupted Tan Trum hastily.
"But have you forgotten, Professor? Have you forgotten? Don't you recall the eugenics test?"
Both my visitors smiled upon me benignly, as one might smile at the recollection of sorrow outlived.
"Of course, we recall!" testified Tan Trum. "It was one of the great griefs of our life. Poor Loa! How she wept! I actually feared for the girl's health. It was seven wakes before she began to show a normal interest in her wrinkles again!"
"I didn't care what happened to me!" added Loa, looking up with a demure twinkle in her eye. "Since you were lost to me, it didn't seem to matter if I lost all my fatness. But now, of course, my dearest, all that is over!"