"You are very obliging," he said, sneeringly.
I made no reply. After a pause he made a suggestion.
"Although determined not to aid. me to an occupation, perhaps you will not object to my sitting by and seeing what you are doing?"
I could not refuse so reasonable a request. I raised him to the table and gave him a paper-weight to sit upon.
He quietly watched me until I began to unscrew the glasses from my microscope, when he said carelessly: "I myself am a microscopic amateur!"
"It is an interesting subject," I replied.
"Yes. My success with the Mincroft glass was remarkable."
"The Mincroft glass,—I do not know it,—what is its nature?" I asked, with some natural curiosity.
"Why, the composite lens invented by Mincroft, which enables one to see the whole of a large object at once, all parts being equally magnified—but I bore you?" He pretended to yawn.
"On the contrary," I said, eagerly, "it has been my keenest desire to invent such an instrument. Pray describe it!"
"But it is so simple; any school-boy can explain it to you," he said, with feigned indifference.
"But how can such a marvel be accomplished?" I insisted, carried away by curiosity.
"Do you really mean to say you never heard of it?" he inquired in a drawling tone, designed, I thought, to annoy me.
"Never ! And I would give anything to understand it!"
He seemed amused by my eagerness, and, smiling indulgently, continued in the same tone: "Why, that is a trifle—a mere toy compared with the wonderful Angertort Tube. Now, that is what I should call an invention!"
"What! Another discovery of which I have never heard? The Angertort Tube, did you say? When were these inventions made?"
