"Well I couldn't be misunderstood about this! Oh, it was awful!--the
suddenness of it, you know. You see Miss Stanley was an old college
friend of mine. In fact, I roomed at their house,"--she paused and seemed
to be thinking of other things--serious things. "A year ago last spring,"
she went on, "Ernestine stopped here on her way home from New York. Her
parents had died, but an old aunt lived in their house, and she was going
to see her. I had always told her about Karl, but she had never met him,
because when Ernestine and I were together so much, he was in Europe. So
I wanted her to meet him--well, principally because he was a good deal of
a celebrity, and I thought it would be nice. I'll be real honest and
confess it never occurred to me there would be anything exciting doing.
Well, Karl didn't want to come. First he said he would, and then he
telephoned he was busy. So I just went over to the laboratory and _got_
him. I told him he was expected, and if he didn't come, mother and I
never would forgive him. He washed his hands and came along, grumbling
all the way about how one's relatives interfered with one's life--oh,
Karl and I are tremendously frank, and then when he got here--well, I'll
just leave it to mother."

"He did seem to be greatly impressed with Georgia's friend." said Mrs.
McCormick, consciously conservative.

"I never saw him act so stupid! Oh, but I was mad at him! I wanted him to
talk about Europe and be brilliant, but he didn't do anything but sit and
look at Ernestine. Fact of the matter is, Ernestine doesn't look quite
like the rest of us. At least Karl thought she didn't, and evidently he
made up his mind then and there he was going to have her. Ernestine left
Chicago sooner than he thought she was going to, and what does he do but
go after her--and get her! You see, all of Karl's ancestors weren't meek