Still recalcitrant, he took the car over to Georgetown and inquired of the porter at the observatory for the research professor. The nearer he got to her the more averse he was to calling upon any woman for assistance; but once having appealed to the porter, it was too late to draw back, particularly when the latter conducted him to the door of a small room overlooking the garden, knocked, and left him there.
The words had a certain musical quality as if half sung, although spoken, and while he did not recognize the voice, its cheerfulness communicated itself to the dejected spirits of the professor. With his pipe still in his mouth, to show his superiority, Hooker turned the knob and pushed open the door.
There, between two high French windows, sat the tan tailor-made girl! She had evidently been dictating, for a weazened, stenographic-looking male with a tonsure was bending over a note-book with elevated pencil. As Professor Hooker entered, the stenographer arose stiffly, and the tan young lady lifted her face toward the door and said,
"Good morning!" Then turning to the stenographer: "You may go, Stebbens. I want seven copies of that condensation of Hiroshito's 'Theory of Thermic Induction.'"
Bennie stared at her, choking with embarrassment.
"Are _you_ the research professor of applied mathematics?" he exclaimed, as the stenographer slid by him.
"I ought to have guessed it," responded Bennie humbly.
"I didn't," he replied. "The truth is, I got side-tracked on something else."
Then, suddenly becoming conscious of his pipe, he thrust it hurriedly into his trousers pocket.
"For heaven's sake go on smoking!" said the girl. "I don't believe you could think at all without your pipe."
"That's true, too," said Bennie, replacing it where it belonged, with gratitude. "Do you mind taking a look at these equations? I'm after something different this time--not as hard as the other one--but I'm not sure of the solution." He laid his note-book down before her.
The girl glanced at it thoughtfully for a moment, and, drawing toward her a pad of yellow paper, she swiftly integrated the equation before Bennie's embarrassed but admiring eyes.
"I suppose one gets groggy occasionally," she said. "Of course I can see that you're on some gravitational problem."