“Why not I?” he asked.
“How in the world did you do it? Where did you get it from?”
“It is mine,” said Thyrsis, quickly.
“But I can’t imagine it! I had no idea you were interested in such things!”
“But how could you know what I am interested in?”
“I see how you live—apart from everybody. And you spend all your time in books!”
Thyrsis suddenly recollected something which had amused him very much. Corydon had been reading “Middlemarch,” and had told him that Dr. Casaubon reminded her of him. “And so I’m still just a bookworm to you!” he laughed.
“But isn’t your interest in things always intellectual?” she asked.
“Then you suppose I’m doing this just as an exercise in technique?” he countered.
“It’s taken me quite by surprise,” said Corydon.