e house, and was greeted by the old man with kindness and good
cheer.

It was dinner-time--for they dined at night now, in some state--and they
sat down to four dainty courses, cooked and served by the capable
Henderson. The table was a round one, so small that the two men could
have shaken hands across it without the smallest exertion. By old
Surface's plate stood a gold-topped bottle, containing, not the ruddy
burgundy which had become customary of late, but sparkling champagne.
Surface referred to it, gracefully, as his medicine; doctors, he said,
were apparently under the delusion that schoolmasters had bottomless
purses. To this pleasantry Queed made no reply. He was, indeed, spare
with his remarks that evening, and his want of appetite grieved old
Henderson sorely.

The servant brought the coffee and retired. He would not be back again
till he was rung for: that was the iron rule. The kitchen was separated
from the dining-room by a pantry and two doors. Thus the diners were as
private as they were ever likely to be in this world, and in the breast
of one of them was something that would brook no more delay.

"Professor," said this one, with a face which gave no sign of inner
turmoil, "I find myself obliged to refer once more to--an unwelcome
subject."

Surface was reaching for his coffee cup; he was destined never to pick
it up. His hand fell; found the edge of the table; his long fingers
gripped and closed over it.

"Ah?" he said easily, not pretending to doubt what subject was meant.
"I'm sorry. I thought that we had laid the old ghosts for good."

"I thought so, too. I was mistaken, it seems."

Across the table, the two men looked at each other. To Surface, the
subject must indeed have been the most unwelcome imaginable, especially
when forced upon him with so ominous a directness. Yet his manner was
the usual bland mask; his face, rather like a bad Roman senator's in the
days of the decline, had undergone no perceptible change.

"When I came here to live with you," said Queed, "I understood, of
course, that you would be contributing several times as much toward our
joint expenses as I. To a certain degree, you would be supporting me.
Naturally, I did not altogether like that. But you constantly assured
me, you may remember, that you would rather put your savings into a home
than anything else, that you could not manage it without my assistance,
and that you considered my companionship as fully offsett