n the rows of rusty bindings. At length he reached the
desk and stood before her.

"Have you a card-catalogue?" he asked in a pleasant abrupt voice; and
the oddness of the question caused her to drop her work.

"A WHAT?"

"Why, you know----" He broke off, and she became conscious that he was
looking at her for the first time, having apparently, on his entrance,
included her in his general short-sighted survey as part of the
furniture of the library.

The fact that, in discovering her, he lost the thread of his remark,
did not escape her attention, and she looked down and smiled. He smiled
also.

"No, I don't suppose you do know," he corrected himself. "In fact, it
would be almost a pity----"

She thought she detected a slight condescension in his tone, and asked
sharply: "Why?"

"Because it's so much pleasanter, in a small library like this, to poke
about by one's self--with the help of the librarian."

He added the last phrase so respectfully that she was mollified, and
rejoined with a sigh: "I'm afraid I can't help you much."

"Why?" he questioned in his turn; and she replied that there weren't
many books anyhow, and that she'd hardly read any of them. "The worms
are getting at them," she added gloomily.

"Are they? That's a pity, for I see there are some good ones." He seemed
to have lost interest in their conversation, and strolled away again,
apparently forgetting her. His indifference nettled her, and she picked
up her work, resolved not to offer him the least assistance. Apparently
he did not need it, for he spent a long time with his back to her,
lifting down, one after another, the tall cob-webby volumes from a
distant shelf.

"Oh, I say!" he exclaimed; and looking up she saw that he had drawn out
his handkerchief and was carefully wiping the edges of the book in his
hand. The action struck her as an unwarranted criticism on her care of
the books, and she said irritably: "It's not my fault if they're dirty."

He turned around and looked at her with reviving interest. "Ah--then
you're not the librarian?"

"Of course I am; but I can't dust all these books. Besides, nobody ever
looks at them, now Miss Hatchard's too lame to come round."

"No, I suppose not." He laid down the book he had been wiping, and stood
considering her in silence. She wondered if Miss Hatchard had sent
him round to pry into the way the library was looked after, and the
suspicion increased her resentment. "I saw you going in