the ordinary course of business
they were courteous enough, but their eyes were bold, and sometimes
they said things in an undertone which made her face flush scarlet.
She complained to her associates, but she got no sympathy. The other
girls--sorry they were not attractive themselves--only laughed at her
for being so particular. They said that the men meant no harm, and
that she should consider it a compliment to her good looks if they
took the trouble to address her at all.

Otherwise the work was congenial enough and the hours were not long.
She still lived with her sister in the same house where their mother
died. The millinery business had grown sufficiently large to take all
Fanny's time, and it brought in enough to keep the little household
going. When her sister married Jimmie, she would, of course, be
compelled to give the shop up, but meantime it helped defray expenses
and gave Fanny an occupation.

After that first morning of dictation in Robert Stafford's rooms,
Virginia saw a good deal of the handsome railroad man. The first
business interview had been followed by others, and when there was no
regular correspondence to be answered he would stop at the desk
downstairs on all sorts of pretexts. Usually it was to telephone;
sometimes to write a note, and for some reason or other both of these
operations took up considerably more time than was absolutely
necessary. On one occasion he was sitting near her desk nearly all
afternoon. He had asked her to get Chicago on the long distance. There
was trouble on the wires, as had happened once before with Washington,
and it was two hours before he got his number. Strangely enough, the
delay did not seem to annoy him. He sat leisurely near her desk and
chatted with her about theatres, music, books and art, finding her
well read and conversant with every topic, especially with art, which
was his hobby. He seemed sorry when at last he had no longer an excuse
to stay. All that time he had watched her, quietly noting and admiring
the calm, skilful way she went about her work.

The girl interested him. Not so much because she was good looking as
that she was quite different from other women. Her cold, distant air,
her spirit of self-reliance and independence pleased him. Most women
he had known had offered themselves shamelessly; this girl had kept
him at a distance. This in itself would be enough to attract most men.
The very novelty of it appealed to him. She was excee