a satirical smile. "Thanks, Mr. Burleigh; we will not detain you
any longer."

When alone again, he resumed, with an expression of disgust:

"A 'New England FEMALE college!' How aptly he words it. If there's
any region on the face of the earth that I detest, it's New England;
and if there is one type of women that I'd shun as I would 'ever
angry bears,' it's a New England school-ma'am."

"'But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea' of a restless,
all-absorbing passion, 'Thou'dst meet the bear I' the mouth,' as
you will try to in this case. You will be ready to barter your
ears for a kiss before very long."

"It will be after they have grown prodigiously long and hairy in
some transformation scene like that in which the immortal Bottom
was the victim."

"Your illustration tells against you, for it was only after his
appropriate transformation that Bottom saw the fairy queen; but in
your case the desire to 'munch' will be banned."

"Come, Van, we have had enough chaff on this topic, already
worn threadbare. I now know all about the mysterious complaint,
the impress of which on the face of the school-ma'am has so dazed
you. It's a New England female college--a place where they give
a razor-like edge to the wits of Yankee women, already too sharp,
and develop in attenuated maidens the hatchet faces of their sires.
You may as well set about that picture at once, whenever you feel