character he had determined to represent. It is not in his best coat
and trousers that the book-dealer sets out on the dusty quest of the
Aldine Plato and the Neapolitan Horace and the _Aurea Legenda_ of
Wynkyn de Worde.

He could no longer conceal the fact that he had dressed himself
elaborately for an interview with Miss Harden. But he endeavoured to
adjust his mind to a new and less disturbing view of the lady. He had
seen her last night through a flush of emotion that obscured her; he
would see her to-day in the pure and imperturbable light of the
morning, and his nerves should not play the devil with him this time.
He would be cool, calm, incorruptibly impersonal, as became Rickman,
the man of business, Rickman of Rickman's.

Unfortunately, though the role was rehearsed with ease in the privacy
of his bedroom, it proved impossible to sustain it under Miss Harden's
candid eyes. At the first sight of them he lost all grasp and memory
of his part; he broke down disgracefully, miserably. The sound of her
voice revived his agony of the previous night. True, the flush of
emotion had subsided, but in the fierce intellectual light that
followed, his doubts and scruples showed plainer than ever. They even
acquired a certain logical order and cohesion.

He concealed himself behind the projecting wing of a bookcase and
wrestled with them there. Dispassionately considered, the situation
stood thus. He was possessed of certain knowledge relating to Sir
Frederick Harden's affairs. That was neither bad nor good. He had
allowed Sir Frederick Harden's daughter to engage him in a certain
capacity, knowing perfectly well that she would not have done so had
she herself possessed that knowledge. That was bad--distinctly bad. He
was going to take advantage of that engagement to act in another
capacity, not contemplated by his employer, namely, as valuer of said
employer's property and possibly as the agent for its purchase, well
knowing that such purchase would be effected without reference to its
intrinsic or even to its market value. That was worse.

These were the simple data of his problem. The problem (seen with
excruciating lucidity) stated itself thus. Assuming, first of all,
Miss Harden's ignorance and his own knowledge, what was the correct
attitude of his knowledge to her ignorance? In other words, was it his
business to enlighten her as to the state of her father's finances?

No; it might be somebody else's business, but