s. Sharlee felt her heart rising.

"Don't think me merely prying. You see I am naturally interested in the
question of whether you--will find yourself able to stay on here--"

"You refer to my ability to make my board payments?"

"Yes."

Throughout this dialogue, Mr. Queed had been eating, steadily and
effectively. Now he slid his knife and fork into place with a pained
glance at his watch; and simultaneously a change came over his face, a
kind of tightening, shot through with Christian fortitude, which plainly
advertised an unwelcome resolution.

"My supper allowance of time," he began warningly, "is practically up.
However, I suppose the definite settlement of this board question cannot
be postponed further. I must not leave you under any misapprehensions.
If this money came from my father, it is the first I ever had from him
in my life. Whether I am to get any more from him is problematical, to
say the least. Due consideration must be given the fact that he and I
have never met."

"Oh!... Does--he live here, in the city?"

"I have some reason to believe that he does. It is indeed," Mr. Queed
set forth to his landlady's agent, "because of that belief that I have
come here. I have assumed, with good grounds, that he would promptly
make himself known to me, take charge of things, and pay my board; but
though I have been here nearly a month, he has so far made not the
slightest move in that direction, unless we count this letter. Possibly
he leaves it to me to find him, but I, on my part, have no time to spare
for any such undertaking. I make the situation clear to you? Under the
circumstances I cannot promise you a steady revenue from my father. On
the other hand, for all that I know, it may be his plan to send me money
regularly after this."

There was a brief pause. "But--apart from the money consideration--have
you no interest in finding him?"

"Oh--if that is all one asks! But it happens not to be a mere question
of my personal whim. Possibly you can appreciate the fact that finding a
father is a tremendous task when you have no idea where he lives, or
what he looks like, or what name he may be using. My time is wholly
absorbed by my own work. I have none to give to a wild-goose chase such
as that, on the mere chance that, if found, he would agree to pay my
board for the future."

If he had been less in earnest he would have been grotesque. As it was,
Sharlee was by no means sure that he escaped it; and