rent, deftly untied the
knot in his flapping coat. When he was disentangled, she sat down and
said, with a ghost of a smile, 'He is so very absent-minded.'

"'Your father is evidently a great student,' I ventured, pleasantly.
How I pitied her, tied to this old lunatic!

"'Yes, he is a great student,' she said, quietly.

"'I am,' he murmured; 'that's what makes me so absent-minded. I often
go to bed and forget to sleep.' Then, looking at me, he asked me my
name, adding, with a bow, that his name was P. Royal Wyeth, Professor
of Pythagorean Research and Abstruse Paradox.

"'My first name is Penny--named after Professor Penny, of Harvard,' he
said; 'but I seldom use my first name in connection with my second, as
the combination suggests a household remedy of penetrating odor.'

"'My name is Kensett,' I said, 'Harold Kensett, of New York.'

"'Student?'

"'Er--a little.'

"'Student of diamonds?'

"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?'

"'A--what?' I said, angrily.

"'A jay. We call the members of the Junior Ornithological Jay Society
of New York, jays, just as we refer to ourselves as dodos. Are you not
even a jay?'

"'I am not,' I said, watching him suspiciously.

"'I must convert you, I see,' said the professor, smiling.

"'I'm afraid I do not approve of Pythagorean research,' I began, but
the beautiful Miss Wyeth turned to me very seriously, and, looking me
frankly in the eyes, said:

"'I trust you will be open to conviction.'

"'Good Lord!' I thought. 'Can she be another lunatic?' I looked at her
steadily. What a little beauty she was! She also, then, belonged to
the Pythagorean