Carr spared him a glance. "Not at all. I'm enjoying it. I always did have a knack for these things, though it's not exactly my field." And then he was busy again. * * * * * The afternoon shadows deepened. Norman switched on the overhead light, and Carr thanked him with a quick, preoccupied nod. The pencil flew. Three more sheets had been shoved across to Norman, and Carr was finishing the last one, when the door opened. "Linthicum!" came the sweet voice, with hardly a trace of reproachfulness. "Whatever's keeping you? I've waited downstairs fifteen minutes." "I'm sorry, dear," said the old man, looking at his watch and his wife. "But I had become so absorbed--" She saw Norman. "Oh, I didn't know you had a visitor," she said. "_Whatever_ will Professor Saylor _think_! I'm afraid that I've given him the impression that I tyrannize over you." And she accompanied the words with such a quaint smile that Norman found himself echoing Carr's "Not at all." "Professor Saylor looks _dead_ tired," she said, peering at Norman anxiously. "I hope you haven't been wearing him out, Linthicum." "Oh, no, my dear, I've been doing all the work," her husband told her. She walked around the desk and looked over his shoulder. "What is it?" she asked, pleasantly. "I don't know," he said. He straightened up and, winking at Norman, went on, "I believe that, behind these symbols, Professor Saylor is revolutionizing the science of sociology. But it's a great secret. And in any case I haven't the slightest idea of what the symbols refer to. I'm just being a comptometer." With a polite, by-your-leave nod toward Norman, Mrs. Carr picked up one of the sheets and studied it through her thick glasses. But when she saw the massed rows of symbols, she put it down. "Mathematics is not my forte," she explained. "I was _such_ a poor scholar." "Nonsense, Flora," said Carr. "Whenever we go to the market, you're much quicker at totaling the bill than I am. And I try to beat you, too." "But that's such a _little_ thing," cooed Mrs. Carr delightedly. "I'll only be a moment more," said her husband, returning to his calculations. Mrs. Carr spoke across to Norman in a half-whisper. "Oh, Professor Saylor, _would_ you be so kind as to convey a message to Tansy? I want to invite her for bridge tomorrow night--that's Thursday--with Hulda Gunnison and Evelyn Sawtelle. Linthicum has a _meeting_." "I'll be glad to," said Norman quickly. "But I'm afraid she might not be up to it." And he explained about the food poisoning. "How too, too _terrible_!" observed Mrs. Carr. "Couldn't I come over and help her?" "Thank you," Norman lied, "but we have someone staying with her." "How _wise_," said Mrs. Carr, and it sounded as if she really meant it. Carr put down his pencil. "There," he said, "I'm done." With further expressions of thanks, Norman gathered up the sheets.