“Dick Hand,” she informed him, “you must not go in that house, now. Aunt Keturah has a--a caller.” “Huh. I don’t suppose he’ll bite me.” “Well, I will,” the exasperated young woman retorted. “I’ll not speak to you or go to a party with you, if you don’t come along this minute!” Then a purely feminine inspiration seized her. “Do as you like,” she said, with excellent indifference, “I daresay I can get Guy Vanton or Tommy----” Leaving the sentence unfinished, she controlled herself with an effort and half turned away. Dickie forgot the need of sustenance. Intolerable feelings prompted the young man to fall in at her side. Together they marched solemnly northward. Said Mr. Hand: “Say, Mermaid, I--it--you----” “They--we--him. Yes, Dickie?” “You--don’t you think we might become engaged?” “Why--I suppose we might, some day, Dickie.” “To-day. I’m going on eighteen and you’re sixteen. Lots of people are engaged for years--as long as three years. I’d be twenty-one and you nineteen.” “Yes, Dickie; when you’re twenty-one, I’ll be nineteen.” “But, Mermaid, don’t you--don’t you _care_?” “If it would help you pass that chemistry exam, I’d become engaged to you right away, Dickie,” sighed Mermaid. “Of course I care. If you flunk that you can’t enter technical school or anywhere else.” “Oh, _damn_ the chemistry!” roared Mr. Hand. “Exam, Damn!” “That’s a short poem; remarkable poem,” Mermaid commented with some coldness. “Full of--full of emotion. Conforms to Wordsworth’s definition of poetry, ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity.’ But you’re not tranquil enough, Dickie. I don’t think I want to be engaged to any one who swears regularly.” “Beg your pardon, ’m sure,” Mr. Hand mumbled, sulkily. “I won’t say it again. Go on, don’t mind me! Go on, go with Tommy. He’s almost twenty. Or _Mister_ Vanton, who is twenty-two. _I’m_ only about eighteen.” He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and said loftily: “If you don’t mind.” Lifting his cap, he inclined his head and moved away. Mermaid looked after him uneasily. Suddenly she called out, “Dickie!” He returned, but with a certain effect of distant politeness. “Come over after supper and I’ll quiz you on the chemistry best I can,” she offered. He relaxed somewhat. “All right,” he agreed, magnanimously. “I’ll walk back with you,” he went on, as if uttering an after-thought. Mermaid acquiesced. As they entered the yard they met Ho Ha coming out of the house. He stopped, looking at them happily and mysteriously, and propounded a riddle to Mermaid. “If an uncle of yours,” he said, “were to marry your aunt, what relation would that make your uncle’s nephew to your aunt’s niece?” “Friends once removed,” said Mermaid. “Oh, Uncle Ho, I’m tickled to death!” XIV At sixteen Mermaid was not adequately to be described by Longfellow’s lines about the maiden Standing with reluctant feet Where the brook and river meet.