rmly; there was something imperious and dominating
in her attitude altogether.

"Look, Sally," she said, "these letters want copying. These I've not
looked at. The question of the new census will have to be gone into
carefully. But I'm going home now. Good night, Mr. Clacton; good night,
Sally."

"We are very fortunate in our secretary, Mr. Clacton," said Mrs. Seal,
pausing with her hand on the papers, as the door shut behind Mary.
Mr. Clacton himself had been vaguely impressed by something in Mary's
behavior towards him. He envisaged a time even when it would become
necessary to tell her that there could not be two masters in one
office--but she was certainly able, very able, and in touch with a group
of very clever young men. No doubt they had suggested to her some of her
new ideas.

He signified his assent to Mrs. Seal's remark, but observed, with a
glance at the clock, which showed only half an hour past five:

"If she takes the work seriously, Mrs. Seal--but that's just what some
of your clever young ladies don't do." So saying he returned to his
room, and Mrs. Seal, after a moment's hesitation, hurried back to her
labors.

CHAPTER XXI

Mary walked to the nearest station and reached home in an incredibly
short space of time, just so much, indeed, as was needed for the
intelligent understanding of the news of the world as the "Westminster
Gazette" reported it. Within a few minutes of opening her door, she was
in trim for a hard evening's work. She unlocked a drawer and took out a
manuscript, which consisted of a very few pages, entitled, in a forcible
hand, "Some Aspects of the Democratic State." The aspects dwindled out
in a cries-cross of blotted lines in the very middle of a sentence,
and suggested that the author had been interrupted, or convinced of the
futility of proceeding, with her pen in the air.... Oh, yes, Ralph had
come in at that point. She scored that sheet very effectively, and,
choosing a fresh one, began at a great rate with a generalization upon
the structure of human society, which was a good deal bolder than her
custom. Ralph had told her once that she couldn't write English, which
accounted for those frequent blots and insertions; but she put all that
behind her, and drove ahead with such words as came her way, until she
had accomplished half a page of generalization and might legitimately
draw breath. Directly her hand stopped her brain stopped too, and she
began to listen. A paper