PART 2
45. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
(continued)
Gentlemen are sometimes seized with sudden fits of admiration
for the young relatives of ladies whom they honor with their regard,
but this counterfeit philoprogenitiveness sits uneasily upon them,
and does not deceive anybody a particle. Mr. Bhaer's devotion was
sincere, however likewise effective--for honesty is the best policy
in love as in law. He was one of the men who are at home with children,
and looked particularly well when little faces made a pleasant
contrast with his manly one. His business, whatever it was, detained
him from day to day, but evening seldom failed to bring him out to
see--well, he always asked for Mr. March, so I suppose he was the
attraction. The excellent papa labored under the delusion that he
was, and reveled in long discussions with the kindred spirit, till
a chance remark of his more observing grandson suddenly enlightened him.
Mr. Bhaer came in one evening to pause on the threshold of the
study, astonished by the spectacle that met his eye. Prone upon
the floor lay Mr. March, with his respectable legs in the air, and
beside him, likewise prone, was Demi, trying to imitate the attitude
with his own short, scarlet-stockinged legs, both grovelers
so seriously absorbed that they were unconscious of spectators,
till Mr. Bhaer laughed his sonorous laugh, and Jo cried out, with
a scandalized face...
"Father, Father, here's the Professor!"
Down went the black legs and up came the gray head, as the
preceptor said, with undisturbed dignity, "Good evening, Mr. Bhaer.
Excuse me for a moment. We are just finishing our lesson. Now, Demi,
make the letter and tell its name."
"I knows him!" And, after a few convulsive efforts, the red
legs tok the shape of a pair of compasses, and the intelligent
pupil triumphantly shouted, "It's a We, Dranpa, it's a We!"
"He's a born Weller," laughed Jo, as her parent gathered himself
up, and her nephew tried to stand on his head, as the only
mode of expressing his satisfaction that school was over.
"What have you been at today, bubchen?" asked Mr. Bhaer,
picking up the gymnast.
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