I had occasion to correct
him afterwards, several times, but he always forgot the next minute.
He calls me Dick to this day.

"It was dark when Professor Holroyd, his daughter, and I sat down to
dinner. The room was the same in which I had noticed the drawings of
beast and bird, but the round table had been extended into an oval,
and neatly spread with dainty linen and silver.

"A fresh-cheeked Swedish girl appeared from a farther room, bearing
the soup. The professor ladled it out, still beaming.

"'Now, this is very delightful--isn't it, Daisy?' he said.

"'Very,' said Miss Holroyd, with a tinge of irony.

"'Very,' I repeated, heartily.

"'I suppose,' said the professor, nodding mysteriously at his
daughter, 'that Dick knows nothing of what we're about down here?'

"'I suppose,' said Miss Holroyd, 'that he thinks we are digging for
fossils.'

"I looked at my plate. She might have spared me that.

"'Well, well,' said her father, smiling to himself, 'he shall know
everything by morning. You'll be astonished, Dick, my boy.'

"'His name isn't Dick,' corrected Daisy.

"The professor said, 'Isn't it?' in an absent-minded way, and relapsed
into contemplation of my necktie.

"I asked Miss Holroyd a few questions about Jack, and was informed
that he had given up law and entered the consular service--as what, I
did not dare ask, for I know what our consular service is.

"'In China,' said Daisy.

"'Choo Choo is the name of the city,' added her father, proudly; 'it's
the terminus of the new trans-Siberian railway.'

"'It's on the Pong Ping,' said Daisy.

"'He's vice-consul,' added the professor, triumphantly.

"'He'll make a good one,' I observed. I knew Jack. I pitied his
consul.

"So we chatted on about my old playmate, until Freda, the red-cheeked
maid, brought coffee, and the professor lighted a cigar, with a little
bow to his daughter.

"'Of course, you don't smoke,' she said to me, with a glimmer of
malice in her eyes.

"'He mustn't,' interposed the professor, hastily; 'it will make his
hand tremble.'

"'No, it won't,' said I, laughing; 'but my hand will shake if I don't
smoke. Are you going to employ me as a draughtsman?'

"'You'll know to-morrow,' he chuckled, with a mysterious smile at his
daughter. 'Daisy, give him my best cigars--put the box here on the
table. We can't afford to have his hand tremble.'

"Miss Holroyd rose and crossed the hallway to her father's room,
returning presently