"Oh, thank you so much."
The book was fetched, and Miss Patterson informed Miss Crumpet that she now held the volume ready.
"Have you it right there?"
"Yes."
"Well, I want to see a picture of Mrs. Browning. We have a portrait here, and my aunt says it is George Eliot, and I know it is Mrs. Browning. Now, if you could just hold up the book—why, how perfectly ridiculous of me! I can't see it over the telephone, can I? Why, how absolutely absurd! I never thought at all! I was going to come to the library for it, only it is so horrid and rainy, and then I remembered that I saw in the paper about your answering questions by telephone, and I thought, why, how nice, I'll just call them up on the 'phone—and now it won't do me any good at all, will it?"
"I'm afraid not."
"And I'll have to come to the library after all. Oh, dear! Good-by."
"Good-by."
The bell rang again as soon as the receiver had been replaced.