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."

He put his hand into his outer breast-pocket, pulled out an envelope,
and absently pitched it across the table. She looked at it and saw that
it was postmarked the city and bore a typewritten address.

"Am