Pendleton paused, with the stud half in, and looked at him.
"Hum!" he grunted. "You do have a glimmering of sense, it seems! Why is it, if you drop a stud or a collar button in a room a hundred feet square with only one piece of furniture in the place, the infernal thing will dash under it? Talk of a chicken, or a mule, or a pig—they're not in it with the article under discussion."
"So I have observed!" Burgoyne remarked. "The chap who invents a non-hiding stud will make his everlasting fortune. Of course, the reason for the seemingly peculiar is perfectly evident—it is the law of direction and applied force, that's all. I'll illustrate it on you, if you wish."
"It is not at all necessary!" said Pendleton. "Is every one here, I wonder."
"Yes—you're the laggard—you're generally the laggard.—Why didn't you ever marry, Pendleton?"
"Because I was too much occupied attending to my own business," Pendleton answered.
"I had never observed it!" the other grinned.
"There is nothing peculiar about that—you never observe anything but the ladies."
"Do you criticise my taste?"