king at his postern gate!"

"What enigmatic things you do say, my child!"

"Don't you understand? Jarvis has built a high wall about himself, his
precious self. He was a sort of superman, called to sit in a high tower
and dream, to think, to formulate a message to the world. No claims of
earth were allowed to enter in."

"But you climbed over the wall? You were a claim of earth?"

"You know how I sneaked in when he wasn't looking."

"If you could read me the letter, Bambina, or such portions of it as are
not private, I might understand better what you are trying to say."

"I'll read it to you. It's none of it private. He has nothing private to
say to me."

The Professor composed himself to listen, while she read Jarvis's long
screed aloud. At the end he, too, sat thoughtfully a few moments, his
finger tips neatly matched in church steeples before him.

"I'm sometimes amazed at your judgment," he said.

"Why my judgment?"

"I never would have seen any possibilities, myself, in the Jarvis whom
you married."

"Speaking of cryptic remarks----"

"I was trying to convey to your mind my belief that he may turn out a
real man."

"Oh, Jarvis was a good investment. I knew it at the time. Poor old
thing, he's frightfully lonesome."

"He ought to come home for a while, on a visit. I am saving several
topics for disagreement."

"No, it's better for him to stick it out. No human being ever treated
Jarvis like this Miss Harper is treating him, and it's fine for him."

"Aren't you rather Spartan, my dear?"

"I am. I have felt all along that I had pushed him overboard before I
was sure he could swim. Now I know he can."

"You may tell him for me that our agreement was for two years, and it
holds good."

"I don't know what your agreement was, Herr Professor, but if it had
money in it, cancel it. I want him to learn that lesson, too."

"Poor old Jarvis!"

"Don't you poor old Jarvis me. Remember the abuse you heaped on him when
I married him. I want him to be practical!"

The Professor rose and started for the garden.

"It's your own affair, my dear."

The outcome of Bambi's thoughts was a letter to Mr. Strong. She invited
him to spend the weekend with her father and herself, to talk over the
book and other things. She added that she hoped that he would prepare
himself with data about the thirteen sisters, because her father would
be primed with questions about them. Mr. Strong's acceptance came by
return ma