lazy unambitious contentment. CURTIS is reading an article in some
scientific periodical, seated by the table. MARTHA and BIGELOW are
sitting nearby, laughing and chatting.

BIGELOW--[Is talking with a comically worried but earnest air.] Do
you know, I'm getting so I'm actually afraid to leave them alone
with that governess. She's too romantic. I'll wager she's got a
whole book full of ghost stories, superstitions, and yellow-
journal horrors up her sleeve.

MARTHA--Oh, pooh! Don't go milling around for trouble. When I was
a kid I used to get fun out of my horrors.

BIGELOW--But I imagine you were more courageous than most of us.

MARTHA--Why?

BIGELOW--Well, Nevada--the Far West at that time--I should think a
child would have grown so accustomed to violent scenes--

MARTHA--[Smiling.] Oh, in the mining camps; but you don't suppose
my father lugged me along on his prospecting trips, do you? Why, I
never saw any rough scenes until I'd finished with school and went
to live with father in Goldfield.

BIGELOW--[Smiling.] And then you met Curt.

MARTHA--Yes--but I didn't mean he was a rough scene. He was very
mild even in those days. Do tell me what he was like at Cornell.