At last he drove the pen viciously to its hilt in the rutabaga, and almost shouted:-- "I'll go to see Mrs.Potts!" Before I could again express my enthusiasm, reawakened by the felicitous adequacy of this device, he had seized his hat and was clattering noisily down the stairway.
Two hours later Solon bustled into my own office, whither I had fled to forget his manifest incompetence.

His hat was well back, and he seemed to be inflated with secrecy.

I remembered it was thus he had impressed me just previous to the _coup_ that had relieved us of Potts.

I knew at once that he was going to be mysterious with me.
"I am not to say a word to any one," I began, merely to show him that I was not dense.
He paused, apparently on the point of telling me as much.

I saw that I had read him aright.
"I am merely to be quiet and trust everything to you," I continued.
"Oh, well,--if you--" "One moment--let me take a few more words out of your mouth.