"We must talk together." She took a chair opposite to him and waited respectfully again.

Yes, he had something grave on his mind.

He had come to tell her something--to ask her questions perhaps--to require something of her.

Her superiors had often required things of her in the course of her experience--such things as they would not have asked of a less sensible and reliable woman.

And she had always been ready.
When he began to talk to her he spoke as he always did, in a tone which sounded unemotional but held one's attention.