"
"The hypothesis is at variance with my established character," replied
the oleaginous one. "Do me the justice to believe in the necessity of
this investigation, and that it is one of a most friendly character."
"Then I decline the double nuisance: your curiosity and your friendship!
Take them both out of my room, sir, or I shall turn them both out by one
pair of shoulders."
"You shall smart for this," said the doctor, driven to plain English by
anger, that great solvent of circumlocution with which Nature has
mercifully supplied us. He made to the door, opened it, and said in
considerable excitement to some one outside, "Excited!--Very!"
Now Dr. Pleonast had no sooner been converted to the vernacular, and
disappeared, than another stranger entered the room. He had evidently
been lurking in the passage: it was a man of smallish stature, singularly
gaunt, angular, and haggard, but dressed in a spruce suit of black,
tight, new, and glossy. In short, he looked like Romeo's apothecary gone
to Stultz with the money. He fluttered in with pale cheek and
apprehensive body, saying hurriedly, "Now, my _dear_ sir, _be_ calm:
_pray_ be calm.
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