"I'm afraid I must interrupt your reading for a moment," she said quietly. "There is something I want to say...." He glanced up for the second time. There was surprise and some vexation in the eyes behind his circular glasses, but no sign of any interest. "Well?" "When my aunt introduced you to me just now she did not--did not identify me as she should--" "Really, does it make any difference?" "Yes, I think it does. You see, I am not only her niece, but her business woman, her agent, as well. She isn't very good at business, but still she has a good deal of it to be done. She runs this boarding-place, and people of various kinds come to her and she takes them into her house. Many of these people are entirely unknown to her. In this way trouble sometimes arises. For instance people come now and then who--how shall I put it?--are very reserved about making their board-payments. My aunt hardly knows how to deal with them--" He interrupted her with a gesture and a glance at his watch. "It always seems to me an unnecessary waste of time not to be direct. You have called to collect my arrearage for board?" "Well, yes. I have." "Please tell your aunt that when I told her to give herself no concern about that matter, I exactly meant what I said. To-night I received funds through the mail; the sum, twenty dollars. Your aunt," said he, obviously ready to return to his reading matter, "shall have it all." But Sharlee had heard delinquent young men talk like that before, and her business platform in these cases was to be introduced to their funds direct. "That would cut down the account nicely," said she, looking at him pleasantly, but a shade too hard to imply a beautiful trust. She went on much like the firm young lady enumerators who take the census: "By the way--let me ask: Have you any regular business or occupation?" "Not, I suppose, in the sense in which you mean the interrogation." "Perhaps you have friends in the city, who--" "Friends! Here! Good Lord--_no!_" said he, with exasperated vehemence. "I gather," was surprised from her, "that you do not wish--" "They are the last thing in the world that I desire. My experience in that direction in New York quite sufficed me, I assure you. I came here," said he, with rather too blunt an implication, "to be let alone." "I was thinking of references, you know. You have friends in New York, then?" "Yes, I have two. But I doubt if you would regard them as serviceable for references. The best of them is only a policeman; the other is a yeggman by trade--his brother, by the way." She was silent a moment, wondering if he were telling the truth, and deciding what to say next. The young man used the silence to bolt his coffee at a gulp and go hurriedly but deeply into the preserves. "My aunt will be glad that you can make a remittance to-night. I will take it to her for you with pleasure." "Oh!--All right."