will have me, are you not, Professor?
However I only ask to be allowed to sit on the small seat, for the last
thing I wish to do is to disturb anybody. But I fear the Professor will
not allow----' and she stopped and looked with arch pleasantness at the
Professor who murmured abstractedly 'Certainly, certainly '--which, of
course, might mean anything.

'My dear mother----' began Brosy in a tone of strong remonstrance.

'Oh I'm sure it is the best thing we can do, Brosy. I did ask the
landlord about hiring a fly, and there is no such thing. It will only be
as far as Wiek, and I hear that is not so very far. You don't mind do
you, dear Frau X.?'

'Mind?' I cried, wriggling out a smile, 'mind? But how will your son I
don't quite see--and your maid?'

'Oh Brosy has his bicycle, and if you'll let the luggage be put in your
luggage cart Andrews can quite well sit beside your maid. Of course we
will share expenses, so that it will really be mutually advantageous.'

Mrs. Harvey-Browne being one of those few persons who know exactly what
they want, did as she chose with wavering creatures like myself. She
also did as she chose with Brosy, because the impossibility of publicly
rebuking one's mother shut his mouth. She even did as she chose with the
Professor, who, declaring that sooner than incommode the ladies he would
go in the luggage cart, was in the very act as we were preparing to
start off of nimbly climbing on to the trunk next to the one on which
Andrews sat, when he found himself hesitating, coming down again,
getting into the victoria, subsiding on to the little seat, and all in
obedience to a clear something in the voice of Mrs. Harvey-Browne.

Never did unhappy celebrity sit more wretchedly than the poor Professor.
It was raining so hard that we were obliged to have the hood up, and its
edge came to within an inch of his nose--would have touched it quite if
he had not sat as straight and as far back as possible. He could not,
therefore, put up his umbrella, and was reduced, while water trickled
ceaselessly off the hood down his neck, to pretending with great heroism
that he was perfectly comfortable. It was impossible to sit under the
snug hood and contemplate the drenched Professor outside it. It was
impossible to let an old man of seventy, and an old man, besides, of
such immense European value, catch his death before my very eyes. Either
he must come between us and be what is known as bodkin, or some one must