“Is it? Well, we’ll see. I did help you, didn’t I, Frank?”
“You have always helped me in every way you could, and been like an elder brother towards me, and I can never be sufficiently grateful.”
“Bother! Nonsense!” said the professor curtly. “But you mean to say I did not specially help you over the dummy business?”
“Well, I really cannot recollect any special way.”
“Ingrate! And you talk about being grateful.”
“Well, out with it, Fred,” said the doctor. “What was your plan?”
“One of my own invention,” said the professor, smiling proudly. “You, Frank, haven’t I always lain down beside you every night when all was still?”
“Oh, yes, of course.”
“And didn’t I always say that I had come for a quiet chat?”
“To be sure,” said Frank.