"What makes you think so?" said Pumpkin, looking at him with the tray in her hands.
"Oh, I can size a man up in two minutes," observed Dick in his usual slangy manner, "and if I was Reggy I wouldn't give that chap the slant to round on me; he says a lot he doesn't mean, and if he's going to run Reggie's show the apple-cart will soon be upset."
Owing to Dick's lavish use of slang, Pumpkin was quite in the dark regarding his meaning, so with a quiet smile walked indoors with the tray.
"Reggy can look after himself all right," observed the poet in a placid tone.
"And a jolly good thing too," cried Dick, eyeing the poetic youth in a savage manner, "but prevention's better than cure, and I wouldn't let Beaumont have a finger in my pie if I were Reggy."
"Ah, you see you're not Reggy."
"I'm uncommonly glad I'm not you," retorted Dick politely. "It must be an awful disagreeable thing for you to know what an arrant idiot you are."
"I'm not an idiot," said Priggs haughtily.
"Not an idiot!" echoed Dick derisively, "why you are such an idiot you don't even know you are one."