"I have come again, after all, to talk only of definite things. In fact, I have something of much importance to tell you. May I ask that you will consider it as confidential for the present?"
At the very beginning she was disquieted by the discovery that his gaze was steadier than her own. She was annoyingly conscious of looking away from him, as she said:—
"I think you have no right to ask that of me."
Surface's son smiled sadly. "It is not about—anything that you could possibly guess. I have made a discovery of—a business nature, which concerns you vitally."
"A discovery?"
"Yes. The circumstances are such that I do not feel that anybody should know of it just yet, but you. However—"
"I think you must leave me to decide, after hearing you—"
"I believe I will. I am not in the least afraid to do so. Miss Weyland, Henry G. Surface is alive."
Her face showed how completely taken back she was by the introduction of this topic, so utterly remote from the subject she had expected of him.
"Not only that," continued Queed, evenly—"he is within reach. Both he—and some property which he has—are within reach of the courts."