he Mikado of Japan and the other as his
daughter-in-law-elect.

When, however, on the following Tuesday they again climbed down from the
fourth floor of the Whitman building, the light had indeed gone out of
the undertaking. Mr. Sprig's subject, the digestive and excretory
tracts, had not been a propitious one for so critical a time. Leofwin,
who had invited himself along, had been captivated by the decorative
possibilities of the alimentary canal and had led the discussion
following the lecture with a vigour and thoroughness trying for those
unfamiliar with an artist's training. "Don't you think it might be fun
to trace something all the way from the initial bite down?" he asked.
"Let's take an olive, a green olive. 'Back to Nature by A. Green Olive:
A Drama in Six Acts and any Number of Scenes.'"

Tom was looking intently at the diagrams on the walls. At musical
comedies and the movies, when embarrassing situations arose, one was, in
a measure, prepared. The darkness, too, helped, and one could stare
straight ahead until the relief, which was rarely long in coming,
arrived. There was, finally, the comfort of numbers. But now they were
only two--the artist and the scientist being immune to shame. It was,
furthermore, extremely bright, everybody was out in the open, and
although the amateurs had come prepared for a momentary brush with a
bowel or two, they had no reason to expect a prolonged causerie upon
even more intimate matters. Tom was, accordingly, hot with
embarrassment, and he had reason to believe that Nancy was also.

As Leofwin rattled on, with frankness ever more Elizabethan, Tom glanced
at Nancy. She was examining the point of her pencil with as elaborate an
interest as he had ever seen shown in any object. It seemed an
altogether remarkable affair; but then, apparently, so was the eraser.
They were complementary. A line could be made by the point, a delicate,
straight line; and then, reversing the pencil, the line could be taken
out by the eraser. The thing was complete.

Tom became angry. What right had that great calf to subject Nancy to
such an ordeal? He turned to her and said without lowering his voice,
"This is rather dull, don't you think? Let's go out and see the hens."

They went out, but couldn't very well see the hens, since they had no
candle and were above deceiving them with the porch light. Accordingly,
they stepped back into the little hallway that led to the library. To go
on into the