tage of the din to
practise the more uncertain of his notes.

The next morning, when Mavis wanted to pay Mrs Medlicott, the
station-master's wife would not hear of it. She declared that she was
amply repaid by Mavis' accompanying her husband's songs, which was
enough to make him happy for many weeks to come. Mrs Medlicott also
observed that her husband would like to take singing lessons from
Mavis, if the latter cared to teach him.

Mavis walked the good mile necessary to take her to the Melkbridge boot
manufactory with a light heart. She reached it at nine, to find a
square, unlovely building, enclosed by a high stone wall of the usual
Wiltshire type, broken slabs of oolitic formation loosely thrown
together. She explained her errand to the first person she met inside
the gate, and was told to await the arrival of Mr Gaby, the manager,
who was due in half an hour, the time, she afterwards learned, at which
the lady clerks were expected. When Mr Gaby came, she found him to be a
nervous, sandy-haired man, who blushed like any school-girl when he
addressed Mavis. A few minutes later, two colleagues arrived, to whom
she was formally introduced. The elder of these was Miss Toombs, a
snub-nosed, short, flat-chested, unhealthy-looking woman, who was well
into the thirties. She took Mavis' proffered hand limply, to drop it
quickly and set about commencing her work. Her conduct was in some
contrast to the other girl's, who was introduced to Mavis as Miss
Hunter. She was tallish, dark, good-looking, with a self-possessed
manner. The first two things Mavis noticed about her were that she was
neatly and becomingly dressed, also that her eyebrows met above her
nose. She looked at Mavis critically for a few moments, and gave the
latter the impression that she had taken a dislike to her. Then Miss
Hunter advanced to Mavis with outstretched hand to say:

"I hope we shall all be great friends and work together comfortably."

"Thank you," replied Mavis, at which Miss Hunter proceeded to instruct
her in her duties. These were of the kind usually allotted to clerical
beginners, and consisted of the registering, indexing, and sorting of
all letters received in the course of the day.

Mavis worked with a will; her bold, unaffected handwriting emphasised
the niggling scrawliness of Miss Hunter's previous entries in the book.

"Don't work so fast," said Miss Hunter presently, at which Mavis looked
up in surprise.

"If you do, you won'