Ralph was not entirely unmarred. When he had backed his roadster into the stable behind the bungalow that served the Endicotts for a garage, he went into the washroom and bathed his bruises and the cut above his right eye. There was room in the stable for his small car and the family automobile. The remainder of the floor space had been turned into a laboratory and workshop by Professor Endicott. The latter caught sight of his nephew before he could plaster up the cut. He opened the door of the washroom, and, standing there, a tall, sapling-like figure in his white smock, stared rather grimly at Ralph. "Another smash-up?" he asked. "No, sir. The car isn’t hurt. Just a little trouble with a fellow." "With whom, may I ask?" "That Degger." For Ralph was nothing if not perfectly frank. A smile wreathed Professor Endicott’s lips. He was an austerely handsome man with abundant hair which was gray only at the temples, and a smoothly shaven face. His eyes saw all there was to be seen through amber-tinted glasses. That he kept much to himself, seemed not fond of society, and was wholly wrapped up in his experiments, made Professor Endicott seem less human than he really was. His sense of humor was by no means blunted. "So you finally awoke to the presence of the worm in the apple?" he suggested. "Degger has a dirty mouth. I had to stop it," muttered Ralph. "It went as far as that?" "Say! how am I going to tell Lorna who she shall, or shall not, associate with?" "You should have a right to." "Let me tell you, Uncle Henry, Lorna is not a girl to be bidden in any matter. No man will ever dominate her." "You used to," said the professor, with a sudden smile. "Yes. When we were kids. But no more. Believe me, Lorna is a young woman who knows her own mind and means to have her own way." "Even with the man she marries?" "She has no intention of marrying me." "Don’t you mean, Ralph, that the lack of intention is on your side?" said the professor, his brow bent sternly. "The fault lies at your door, young man. There has been a well understood arrangement for years——" "Between the families—yes," interrupted Ralph. "But Lorna and I never agreed.’ "How can you talk so childishly?" said Professor Endicott in much the same tone Miss Ida Nicholet used with Lorna. "It is too late to hedge now, Ralph. Be a man. Fulfil your family obligations. If the girl seems indifferent it is because you have not been sufficiently loverlike. Can’t you see?" "I see well enough; but you do not," his nephew returned bluntly. "I am quite sure Lorna cares nothing for me in that way. And I am not at all sure that I wish to marry her." "Yet you interfere with this Degger——" "If she was my sister I’d do that. He is a scurrilous scoundrel." "Of course," was Professor Endicott’s thoughtful comment. "I presume Lorna will attract plenty of such fortune hunters until you and she let it be publicly announced that you are engaged."