to derive instruction and entertainment from the interview between uncle and nephew.
Pollyooly had listened to their talk with the iveliest interest; and she had been deeply impressed by that part of it which dealt with the squaring of Ermyntrude. To her child's mind it conveyed very clearly the idea that in the process Ermyntrude would lose her somewhat distressing angularity and assume the simpler contours of a gate-post.
For the next few days Hilary Vance remained deeply depressed by the plight into which his indulgence in the anesthetic revelation had brought him. He sighed and groaned heavily for at least ten minutes every afternoon before he became absorbed in his work. Pollyooly pitied him, and all the while she wondered what Ermyntrude would look like when she had been smoothed and compressed. She wondered, too, whether the process would be very painful. She was too well-mannered to ask, for the preconnubial difficulties of Mr. Hilary Vance were no business of hers.
She was so much distressed by the artist's suffering, however, that after some thought she resolved to consult the Honorable John Ruffin in the matter,
