The parlourmaid looked hard at what she saw, leaving what she didn't see to take care of itself. It seemed unreasonable to be asked to look at what she didn't see. But though she looked, she could see nothing to justify speech. Therefore she was silent.
'Don't you see there's a button off?'
The parlourmaid, on looking closer, did see that, and said so.
'Isn't it your business to attend to this room?'
She admitted that it was.
'Buttons don't come off of themselves,' Wemyss informed her.
The parlourmaid, this not being a question, said nothing.
'Do they?' he asked loudly.
'No sir,' said the parlourmaid; though she could have told him many a story of things buttons did do of themselves, coming off in your hand when you hadn't so much as begun to touch them. Cups, too. The way cups would fall apart in one's hand——
She, however, merely said, 'No sir.'