'"
Rose obediently went back to the piano. The arrival of the trunk and the
composition of a hopeful telegram to Colonel Kent occupied the
resourceful visitor for ten or fifteen minutes. Then he went back to his
patient, who had already begun to miss him.
"You forgot to tell me your name," Allison suggested.
"Sure enough. Call me Jack, or Doctor Jack, when I'm not here and have
to be called."
"But, as you said yourself a few minutes ago, I can't begin that way.
What's the rest of it?"
"If you'll listen," responded the young man, solemnly, "I will unfold
before your eyes the one blot upon the 'scutcheon of my promising
career. My full name is Jonathan Ebenezer Middlekauffer."
"What--how--I mean--excuse me," stammered Allison.
The young man laughed joyously. "You can search me," he answered, with a
shrug. "The gods must have been in a sardonic mood about the time I
arrived to gladden this sorrowful sphere. I've never used more of it
than I could help, and everybody called me 'Jem' until I went to
college, the initials making a shorter and more agreeable name.
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