"You are mistaken in assuming," he said sternly, "that, in giving you my
affection, I have given you any right to cross-examine me in--"
"Yes, you gave it to me when you invited me to your house as, in part,
your guest--"
"I am behind the times, indeed, if it is esteemed the privilege of a
guest to spy upon his host."
"That," said Queed, quietly, "is altogether unjust. You must know that I
am not capable of spying on you. I have, on the contrary, been culpably
short-sighted. Never once have I doubted anything you told me until you
yourself insisted on rubbing doubts repeatedly into my eyes. Professor,"
he went on rapidly, "are you aware that those familiar with your story
say that, when you--that, after your misfortune, you started life again
with a bank account of between one and two hundred thousand dollars?"
The black eyes lit up like two shoe-buttons in the sunlight. "That is a
wicked falsehood, invented at the time by a lying reporter--"
"Do you assert that everything you have now has been earned since your
misfortune?"
"Precisely that."
The voice was indignantly firm, but Queed, looking into the old man's
face, read there as plain as day that he was lying.
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