CHAPTER FOURTEEN 



HEIDELBERG ONCE MORE— SECOND YEAR IN PRINCETON 



IN London, my first act was to go about and see as many of my 

 friends as I could find. Dr. Glover was most kindly insistent that I 

 should give up my room at the hotel and make his house my home, 

 while I remained in England and this I was very glad to do. Gadow 

 I found installed in the British Museum. In the evening, he and I went 

 to the theatre to see Gilbert and Sullivan's new opera Patience, over 

 which I laughed till my sides ached. This has always been one of my 

 favourites, for it ridiculed the "Aesthetic" movement, which had been 

 at its height during my student-days in London. Barring the extrava- 

 gant and Gilbertian love-making, I had seen the counterpart of nearly 

 all its absurdities in London drawing rooms. Professor Huxley re- 

 ceived me very kindly and asked me to spend the following, Sunday, 

 evening at his house. 



Sunday, I breakfasted at Professor Flower's house in Lincoln's Inn 

 Fields and there, for the only time, I met the eminent anatomist, Pro- 

 fessor Turner, of Edinburgh. He gave me a great wigging for laugh- 

 ing at His, a Leipsic professor, though I had been taught in Germany 

 that His was an obstinate heretic (verstockter Ketzer). "In the evening," 

 I wrote in a letter, "I went over to see the Huxleys and spent a couple 

 of hours with them. I had a very cordial welcome and enjoyed my 

 visit immensely. The 'General' was very suave and pleasant. He had 

 not heard of Harry Osborn's engagement and laughed hugely thereat 

 and, when I told him that I was in the same condition, he laughed 

 still more and said : 'However, it is a disease to which all young men are 

 liable.' Then he asked after you with a great deal of interest and said: 

 'Tell her I congratulate her.' " In the earHer part of the evening we all 

 sat out on the lawn behind the house and I was amused then and am 

 amazed in the retrospect by the "night air" superstition. As the dusk 

 began to fall, the "eminent man" called out: "Girls! it is not very pru- 

 dent for you to be sitting out here in the night air. Let us go in"; 



C 139 ] 



