s Girl was sharing him with Mary Faithful--would
always share him. That was a comfort, too.

After the errand boy left, Mary tried to write a letter but she found
herself going into the washroom off Steve's office and without warning
weakly burying her face in an old working coat he had left behind. She
had just made a great many dollars for him which he would spend on the
Gorgeous Girl; she would make many more during the long summer while
she stayed at the post and was Miss Head of Affairs. She had laid her
woman's hopes on the altar of commerce because of Steve O'Valley, and
he rewarded her with a ten-dollar-a-week raise since a man was always
generous on his wedding day.

Yet there was a distinct satisfaction in the heartache and the
responsibility, even in the irony of the ten-dollar-a-week advance.
Life might be hard--but it was not empty! She was glad to be in the
deserted office replete with his belongings and breathing of his
personality. She was glad to be an acknowledged Miss Head of Affairs.

"You'd miss even a heartache if it was all you had," she whispered to
herself from within the folds of Steve's office coat.

CHAPTER IV

During the summer the O'Valley Leather Company discovered that Mary
Faithful made quite as efficient a manager as Steve O'Valley himself.
Nor did she neglect any of a multitude of petty details--such as the
amount of ice needed for the water cooler, the judicious issue of
office supplies; the innovation of a rest-room for girls metamorphosed
out of a hitherto dingy storeroom; the eradication of friction between
two ancient bookkeepers who had come to regard the universe as against
them. Even the janitor's feelings were appeased by a few kind words
and a crossing of his palm with silver when Mary decided to houseclean
before Steve's return.

It is impossible for a business woman not to have feminine notions.
They stray into her routine existence like blades of pale grass
persistently shooting up between the cracks of paving blocks. Quite
frilly curtains adorned Mary's office windows, fresh flowers were kept
in a fragile vase, a marble bust of Dante guarded the filing cabinet,
and despite the general cleaning she used a special little silk duster
for her own knicknacks. On a table was a very simple tea service with
a brass samovar for days when the luncheon hour proved too stormy for
an outside excursion.

Sharing Steve with the Gorgeous Girl, Mary had decided to clean hi