"Oh, you needn't laugh! He doesn't loaf away his Saturday afternoons like the rest of us. Why, he's got one of the best collections of coleoptera in existence!"
"Oh, has he!" exclaimed the bewildered Patterson.
Owen swung round as if to end the conversation, and raising his book to the level of his eyes, sniggered covertly into its pages. Opposite him sat Patterson, awed into silence by the ponderous polysyllable, of whose meaning he was loth to confess his ignorance. So the study began.
That evening Eddy came in after dinner to see some new specimens that Payner had just received from Florida. It was lecture night, and the bell sounded just as Payner opened the case.
"Look here, Eddy, I want to go to that lecture to night. It's on the Grand Canyon, you know. Are you going?"
"I don't believe I shall," said Eddy, absent-mindedly, as he picked up a card to which was pinned a beetle with a rainbow stripe down his back. "That's a beauty, isn't it?"
"Yes, they're all fine. I think I'll hurry over and get a seat. You won't mind, will you? Look at them as long as you want."
"Thank you!" said Eddy.
"And be sure you latch the door, do you hear?"
"All right," said Eddy, passing on to the next card.