ith the has-beens and the never-was-ers. You're too
much of a lady for this rough game. Nearly everybody who comes in
here wants to sell us a gold-brick, and you treat them as if they
were bringing in wedding presents. Becky is as rough as sandpaper,
and she'll clear out a lot of dead wood." O'Mally rose, and tapped
Ardessa's shrinking shoulder. "Now, be a sport and go through with
it, Miss Devine. I'll see that you don't lose. Henderson thinks
you'll refuse to do his work, so I want you to get moved in there
before he comes back from lunch. I've had a desk put in his office
for you. Miss Kalski is in the bookkeeper's room half the time now."

Rena Kalski was amazed that afternoon when a line of office boys
entered, carrying Miss Devine's effects, and when Ardessa herself
coldly followed them. After Ardessa had arranged her desk, Miss
Kalski went over to her and told her about some matters of routine
very good-naturedly. Ardessa looked pretty badly shaken up, and Rena
bore no grudges.

"When you want the dope on the correspondence with the paper men,
don't bother to look it up. I've got it all in my head, and I can
save time for you. If he wants you to go over the printing bills
every week, you'd better let me help you with that for a while. I
can stay almost any afternoon. It's quite a trick to figure out the
plates and over-time charges till you get used to it. I've worked
out a quick method that saves trouble."

When Henderson came in at three he found Ardessa, chilly, but civil,
awaiting his instructions. He knew she disapproved of his tastes and
his manners, but he didn't mind. What interested and amused him was
that Rena Kalski, whom he had always thought as cold-blooded as an
adding-machine, seemed to be making a hair-mattress of herself to
break Ardessa's fall.

At five o'clock, when Ardessa rose to go, the business manager said
breezily:

"See you at nine in the morning, Miss Devine. We begin on the
stroke."

Ardessa faded out of the door, and Miss Kalski's slender back
squirmed with amusement.

"I never thought to hear such words spoken," she admitted; "but I
guess she'll limber up all right. The atmosphere is bad over there.
They get moldy."

* * * * *

After the next monthly luncheon of the heads of departments, O'Mally
said to Henderson, as he feed the coat-boy:

"By the way, how are you making it with the bartered bride?"

Henderson smashed on his Panama as he