ing the
difference in the money we paid. So I became satisfied that the
arrangement was honorable to us both."

Surface spoke with fine courtesy. "All this is so true, your
contribution toward making our house a home has been so much greater
than my own, that I feel certain nothing can have happened to disturb
your satisfaction."

"Yes," said Queed. "I have assumed all the time that the money you were
spending here was your own."

There was a silence. Queed looked at the table-cloth. He had just become
aware that his task was hateful to him. The one thing to do was to get
it over as swiftly and decisively as possible.

"I am at a loss," said the old man, dryly, "to understand where the
assumption comes in, in view of the fact that I have stated, more than
once--"

"I am forced to tell you that I cannot accept these statements."

For a moment the brilliant eyes looked dangerous. "Are you aware that
your language is exceedingly offensive?"

"Yes. I'm very sorry. Nevertheless, this tooth must come out. It has
suddenly become apparent to me that you must be spending here the income
on hardly less than seventy-five thousand dollars. Do you seriously ask
me to believe, now that I directly bring up the matter, that you amassed
this by a few years of school-teaching?"

Surface lit a cigarette, and, taking a slow puff, looked unwinkingly
into the young man's eyes, which looked as steadily back into his own.
"You are mistaken in assuming," he said sternly, "that, in giving you my
affection, I have given you any right to cross-examine me in--"

"Yes, you gave it to me when you invited me to your house as, in part,
your guest--"

"I am behind the times, indeed, if it is esteemed the privilege of a
guest to spy upon his host."

"That," said Queed, quietly, "is altogether unjust. You must know that I
am not capable of spying on you. I have, on the contrary, been culpably
short-sighted. Never once have I doubted anything you told me until you
yourself insisted on rubbing doubts repeatedly into my eyes. Professor,"
he went on rapidly, "are you aware that those familiar with your story
say that, when you--that, after your misfortune, you started life again
with a bank account of between one and two hundred thousand dollars?"

The black eyes lit up like two shoe-buttons in the sunlight. "That is a
wicked falsehood, invented at the time by a lying reporter--"

"Do you assert that everything you have now has been earned sin