bad room, either, not nearly so
comfortless as he had thought last night. There was a fireplace, for
instance, a real fireplace of cobble-stones, for use, not ornament; a
long table stood in the middle of the room, an old fashioned sofa
sprawled beneath one of the windows. There was a dresser at one end
with open shelves for china and, at the other, a book-case, also open,
filled with old and miscellaneous books....

And, best and most encouraging of all, there was breakfast on the table.

"I told Li Ho to give you eggs," said Miss Farr. "It is the one thing
we can be sure of having fresh. Do you like eggs?"

The professor liked eggs. He had never liked eggs so well before,
except once in Flanders--he looked up to thank his hostess, but she had
not waited. Nevertheless the breakfast was very good. Not until he had
finished the last crumb of it did he notice that the comfort of the
place was more apparent than real. The table tipped whenever you
touched it. The chair upon which he sat had lost an original leg and
didn't take kindly to its substitute. The china was thick and chipped.
The walls were unfinished and draughty, the ceiling obviously leaked.
There had been some effort to keep the place livable, for the faded
curtains were at least clean and the floor swept--but the blight of
decay and poverty lay hopelessly upon it all.

And what was a young girl--a girl with level eyes and lifted
chin--doing in this galley? ... Undoubtedly the less he bothered
himself about that question the better. This young person was probably
just as she wished to appear, careless and content. And in any case it
was none of his business.

The sensible thing for him to do was to pack his bag and turn his
back--the absurd old man with the umbrella ... pshaw! ... He
wouldn't go home, of course. Aunt Caroline would say "I told you so" ...
no, she wouldn't say it--she would look it, which was worse ...
he had come away for a rest cure and a rest cure he intended to have
... with a groan he thought of the pictures he had formed of this
place, the comfortable seclusion, the congenial old scholar, the
capable secretary, the--he looked up to find that Miss Farr had
returned and was regarding him with a cool and pleasantly aloof
consideration.

"Are you wondering how soon you may decently leave?" she inquired. "We
are not at all formal here. And, of course--" her shrug and gesture
disposed of all other matters at issue. "Yours are the only f