He drew back, frowning. "Sit down, sir?" he questioned. And, by Jove, by this time he showed his teeth. And devilish white, even teeth they were, too, only they didn't fit. "I never sit down, sir," he said stiffly; "never!" "By Jove!" I explained. "To be sure!" ejaculated Billings, looking extremely silly. The professor appeared not ungratified with the sensation he had produced and condescended to smile; that is, if you can call a creasing and wrinkling like the cracked end of a hard-boiled egg a smile. "You say, 'sit down,' sir," he said, addressing me. "I ask you, in turn: Is not 'sitting down' recrudescence back to the primordial?" So saying, he took a pinch at my shirt front and stepped back again impressively. Still addressing me, he continued: "It is such thoughtless indulgence of muscles growing obsolescent that retards the evolution of our species, a species, sir, which I claim is coessential in fundamental attributes with contemporaneous amphibia. Ha! I surprise you, perhaps? Can you note in me a resemblance to a batrachian?" I didn't know. And, dash it, I was afraid to chance it. Tried my jolly best to think what a batrachian was. It came to me like a flash that it sounded like something in Italy. "By Jove, you do, though, awfully!" I exclaimed, trying to brighten up over it. "Doesn't he, Billings? Noticed a resemblance right off, don't you know." Billings went to nodding with an air of pleased surprise. Dash me if I believed he knew what a batrachian was, though, any more than I did. But Billings never admits anything. "Sure," he said glibly. "I was half suspecting it; why, look at the skin, you know--and features!" "By Jove, yes!" I said, feeling encouraged. "Head, mouth, nose, eyes and--" I was going to say "hair," but I remembered in time about the wig. The professor looked awfully pleased. He gave me a finger again. "Such perspicacity--ah--is rare in one who looks so--" He coughed slightly, then resumed: "How gratifying, indeed, to meet another investigator! A student in zootomy, no doubt? Ah! Do not deny it; I divined it at once. A delightful recreation, sir--a game, absorbing but elusive." "Awfully jolly, you know," I agreed. "Ripping, I say!" "Surest thing you know," chirped Billings. I wondered if it was anything like polo. And then, by Jove, thinking of polo sent me off again thinking of Frances. Not that she was like polo, dash it, but I wished she could see me play. The professor took another pinch from my shirt front and favored me with a rusty smile. "Ah!" he said: "You must take time to look into a little monograph of mine: _Man in Miniature; a Study of the Anthropology of the Frog_. You regard the frog, of course?" "Oh, I say, yes--fine, you know!" I answered, my mouth watering. By Jove! I thought of the devilish good things they got up in season down at the Cafe Grenouille.