"
Queed said that he would, and Byrd hurried away to overtake Mr. Miller.
Or, perhaps that gentleman was only a pretext, and the young man's
experienced eye had read that any attempt to outsit the learned
assistant editor was foredoomed to failure.
"I'm so glad you stayed," said Sharlee, as Queed reseated himself. "I
shouldn't have liked not to exchange a word with you on your first visit
here."
"Oh! This is not my first visit, you may remember."
"Your first voluntary visit, perhaps I should have said."
He let his eyes run over the room, and she could see that he was
thinking, half-unconsciously, of the last time when he and she had sat
here.
"I had no idea of going," he said absently, "till I had the opportunity
of speaking to you."
A brief silence followed, which clearly did not embarrass him, at any
rate. Sharlee, feeling the necessity of breaking it, still puzzling
herself with speculations as to what had put it into his head to come,
said at random:--
"Oh, do tell me--how is old Pere Goriot?"
"Pere Goriot? I never heard of him."
"Oh, forgive me! It is a name we used to have, long ago, for Professor
Nicolovius.
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