belong here. Don't be hasty now. Go to your room
and think it over."

Ardessa was beginning to cry, and O'Mally was afraid he would lose
his nerve. He looked out of the window at a new sky-scraper that was
building, while she retired without a word.

At her own desk Ardessa sat down breathless and trembling. The one
thing she had never doubted was her unique value to O'Mally. She
had, as she told herself, taught him everything. She would say a few
things to Becky Tietelbaum, and to that pigeon-breasted tailor, her
father, too! The worst of it was that Ardessa had herself brought it
all about; she could see that clearly now. She had carefully trained
and qualified her successor. Why had she ever civilized Becky? Why
had she taught her manners and deportment, broken her of the
gum-chewing habit, and made her presentable? In her original state
O'Mally would never have put up with her, no matter what her
ability.

Ardessa told herself that O'Mally was notoriously fickle; Becky
amused him, but he would soon find out her limitations. The wise
thing, she knew, was to humor him; but it seemed to her that she
could not swallow her pride. Ardessa grew yellower within the hour.
Over and over in her mind she bade O'Mally a cold adieu and minced
out past the grand old man at the desk for the last time. But each
exit she rehearsed made her feel sorrier for herself. She thought
over all the offices she knew, but she realized that she could never
meet their inexorable standards of efficiency.

While she was bitterly deliberating, O'Mally himself wandered in,
rattling his keys nervously in his pocket. He shut the door behind
him.

"Now, you're going to come through with this all right, aren't you,
Miss Devine? I want Henderson to get over the notion that my people
over here are stuck up and think the business department are old
shoes. That's where we get our money from, as he often reminds me.
You'll be the best-paid girl over there; no reduction, of course.
You don't want to go wandering off to some new office where
personality doesn't count for anything." He sat down confidentially
on the edge of her desk. "Do you, now, Miss Devine?"

Ardessa simpered tearfully as she replied.

"Mr. O'Mally," she brought out, "you'll soon find that Becky is not
the sort of girl to meet people for you when you are away. I don't
see how you can think of letting her."

"That's one thing I want to change, Miss Devine. You're too
soft-handed w