Have a flirtation with Ottilia, and
we shall see!"
"Flirt with Ottilia? With Ottilia?"
"Try it. Aren't you up in any of the subjects which interest her?"
"Well, yes! They are deep in statistics, now. Fallen women, infectious
diseases. If I could lead the conversation to mathematics! I am well
up in that!"
"There you are! Begin with mathematics--by and by put her shawl round
her shoulders and button her overshoes. Take her home in the evening.
Drink her health and kiss her when Gurli is sure to see it. If necessary,
be a little officious. She won't be angry, believe me. And give her a
big dose of mathematics, so big that Gurli has no option but to sit and
listen to it quietly. Come again in a week's time and tell me the
result."
The captain went home, read the latest pamphlets on immorality and at
once started to carry out his scheme.
A week later he called on his mother-in-law, serene and smiling, and
greatly enjoying a glass of good sherry. He was in high spirits.
"Now tell me all about it," said the old woman, pushing her spectacles
up on her forehead.
"It was difficult work at first," he began, "for she distrusted me.
She thought I was making fun of her. Then I mentioned the effect which
the computation of probabilities had had on the statistics of morality
in America.
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