At last he drove the pen
viciously to its hilt in the rutabaga, and almost shouted:--
"I'll go to see Mrs. Potts!"
Before I could again express my enthusiasm, reawakened by the felicitous
adequacy of this device, he had seized his hat and was clattering
noisily down the stairway.
Two hours later Solon bustled into my own office, whither I had fled to
forget his manifest incompetence. His hat was well back, and he seemed
to be inflated with secrecy. I remembered it was thus he had impressed
me just previous to the _coup_ that had relieved us of Potts. I knew at
once that he was going to be mysterious with me.
"I am not to say a word to any one," I began, merely to show him that I
was not dense.
He paused, apparently on the point of telling me as much. I saw that I
had read him aright.
"I am merely to be quiet and trust everything to you," I continued.
"Oh, well,--if you--"
"One moment--let me take a few more words out of your mouth. You are not
certain, I am to remember, that anything will come of it, but you think
something will. You think you may say _that_ much. But I am again to
remember not to talk about it. There! That's it, isn't it?"
He was entirely serious.
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