This was a curious and interesting mystery, and I was frank with him, and asked him to explain it.
He tried to avoid it at first; but then laughed and said that after all, the matter was not worth concealment, so he would let me into the secret.
In substance, this is his story: "Last autumn I was at work one morning at home, when a card came up--the card of a stranger.

Under the name was printed a line which showed that this visitor was Professor of Theological Engineering in Wellington University, New Zealand.

I was troubled--troubled, I mean, by the shortness of the notice.

College etiquette required that he be at once invited to dinner by some member of the Faculty--invited to dine on that day--not, put off till a subsequent day.

I did not quite know what to do.