Without taking any notice of her he began to move slowly about the
long vault-like room, his hands behind his back, his short-sighted eyes
peering up and down the rows of rusty bindings. At length he reached the
desk and stood before her.
"Have you a card-catalogue?" he asked in a pleasant abrupt voice; and
the oddness of the question caused her to drop her work.
"A WHAT?"
"Why, you know----" He broke off, and she became conscious that he was
looking at her for the first time, having apparently, on his entrance,
included her in his general short-sighted survey as part of the
furniture of the library.
The fact that, in discovering her, he lost the thread of his remark,
did not escape her attention, and she looked down and smiled. He smiled
also.
"No, I don't suppose you do know," he corrected himself. "In fact, it
would be almost a pity----"
She thought she detected a slight condescension in his tone, and asked
sharply: "Why?"
"Because it's so much pleasanter, in a small library like this, to poke
about by one's self--with the help of the librarian.
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