“Why, the rest of me, a-course!” Bruno exclaimed triumphantly. “Supposing I was two or three boys!”
The Other Professor sighed, and seemed to be sinking back into his reverie; but suddenly brightened up again, and addressed the Professor. “There’s nothing more to be done now, is there?”
“Well, there’s the dinner to finish,” the Professor said with a bewildered smile: “and the heat to bear. I hope you’ll enjoy the dinner—such as it is; and that you won’t mind the heat—such as it isn’t.”
The sentence sounded well, but somehow I couldn’t quite understand it; and the Other Professor seemed to be no better off. “Such as it isn’t what?” he peevishly enquired.
“It isn’t as hot as it might be,” the Professor replied, catching at the first idea that came to hand.
“Ah, I see what you mean now!” the Other Professor graciously remarked. “It’s very badly expressed, but I quite see it now! Thirteen minutes and a half ago,” he went on, looking first at Bruno and then at his watch as he spoke, “you said ‘this Cat’s very kind to the Mouses.’ It must be a singular animal!”
“So it are,” said Bruno, after carefully examining the Cat, to make sure how many there were of it.
“But how do you know it’s kind to the Mouses—or, more correctly speaking, the Mice?”
“’Cause it plays with the Mouses,” said Bruno; “for to amuse them, oo know.”
“But that is just what I don’t know,” the Other Professor rejoined. “My belief is, it plays with them to kill them!”