"You slept badly last night, didn't you?"
"Yes--my old enemy. The attack soon passed. However, you may be sure
that it is a comfort at such times to know that I am not alone."
"If you should need any--ahem--assistance, I assume that you will call
me," said Queed, after a pause.
"Thank you. You can hardly realize what your presence here, your
companionship and, I hope I may say, your friendship, mean to me."
Queed glanced at him over the table, and hastily turned his glance away.
He had surprised Nicolovius looking at him with a curiously tender look
in his black diamond eyes.
The young man went to the office that night, worried by two highly
irritating ideas. One was that Nicolovius was most unjustifiably
permitting himself to become dependent upon him. The other was that it
was very peculiar that a Fenian refugee should care to express
slanderous views of the soldiers of a Lost Cause. Both thoughts, once
introduced into the young man's mind, obstinately stuck there.