Yet the crisp greenback, incognito though it came, indubitably suggested that Mr. Queed was not an entire stranger to the science of money-making.

“Ah,” said the agent, insinuatingly, “evidently you have some occupation, after all-of—­of a productive sort....”

He looked up again with that same air of vexed surprise, as much as to say:  “What!  You still hanging around!”

“I don’t follow you, I fear.”

“I assume that this money comes to you in payment for some—­work you have done—­”

“It is an assumption, certainly.”

“You can appreciate, perhaps, that I am not idly inquisitive.  I shouldn’t—­”

“What is it that you wish to know?”

“As to this money—­”

“Really, you know as much about it as I do.  It came exactly as I handed it to you:  the envelope, the blank paper, and the bill.”

“But you know, of course, where it comes from?”

“I can’t say I do.  Evidently,” said Mr. Queed, “it is intended as a gift.”

“Then—­perhaps you have a good friend here after all?  Some one who has guessed—­”

“I think I told you that I have but two friends, and I know for a certainty that they are both in New York.  Besides, neither of them would give me twenty dollars.”

“But—­but—­but,” said the girl, laughing through her utter bewilderment—­“aren’t you interested to know who did give it to you?  Aren’t you curious? I assure you that in this city it’s not a bit usual to get money through the mails from anonymous admirers—­”

“Nor did I say that this was a usual case.  I told you that I didn’t know who sent me this.”

“Exactly—­”

“But I have an idea.  I think my father sent it.”

“Oh!  Your father ...”

So he had a father, an eccentric but well-to-do father, who, though not a friend, yet sent in twenty dollars now and then to relieve his son’s necessities.  Sharlee felt her heart rising.

“Don’t think me merely prying.  You see I am naturally interested in the question of whether you—­will find yourself able to stay on here—­”

“You refer to my ability to make my board payments?”

“Yes.”

Throughout this dialogue, Mr. Queed had been eating, steadily and effectively.  Now he slid his knife and fork into place with a pained glance at his watch; and simultaneously a change came over his face, a kind of tightening, shot through with Christian fortitude, which plainly advertised an unwelcome resolution.

“My supper allowance of time,” he began warningly, “is practically up.  However, I suppose the definite settlement of this board question cannot be postponed further.  I must not leave you under any misapprehensions.  If this money came from my father, it is the first I ever had from him in my life.  Whether I am to get any more from him is problematical, to say the least.  Due consideration must be given the fact that he and I have never met.”