pe. Queed
closed with it, and together they went down into deep waters.

XXIX

_In which Queed's Shoulders can bear One Man's Roguery and
Another's Dishonor, and of what these Fardels cost him: how for the
Second Time in his Life he stays out of Bed to think._

Sharlee, sitting upstairs, took the card from the tray and, seeing the
name upon it, imperceptibly hesitated. But even while hesitating, she
rose and turned to her dressing-table mirror.

"Very well. Say that I'll be down in a minute."

She felt nervous, she did not know why; chilled at her hands and cold
within; she rubbed her cheeks vigorously with a handkerchief to restore
to them some of the color which had fled. There was a slightly pinched
look at the corners of her mouth, and she smiled at her reflection in
the glass, somewhat artificially and elaborately, until she had chased
it away. Undoubtedly she had been working too hard by day, and going too
hard by night; she must let up, stop burning the candle at both ends.
But she must see Mr. Queed, of course, to show him finally that no
explanation could explain now. It came into her mind that this was but
the third time he had ever been inside her house--the third, and it was
the last.

He had been shown into the front parlor, the stiffer and less friendly
of the two rooms, and its effect of formality matched well with the
temper of their greeting. By the obvious stratagem of coming down with
book in one hand and some pretense at fancy-work in the other, Sharlee
avoided shaking hands with him. Having served their purpose, the small
burdens were laid aside upon the table. He had been standing, awaiting
her, in the shadows near the mantel; the chair that he chanced to drop
into stood almost under one of the yellow lamps; and when she saw his
face, she hardly repressed a start. For he seemed to have aged ten
years since he last sat in her parlor, and if she had thought his face
long ago as grave as a face could be, she now perceived her mistake.

The moment they were seated he began, in his usual voice, and with
rather the air of having thought out in advance exactly what he was to
say.

"I have come again, after all, to talk only of definite things. In fact,
I have something of much importance to tell you. May I ask that you will
consider it as confidential for the present?"

At the very beginning she was disquieted by the discovery that his gaze
was steadier than her own. She