f so many other quarrels during the day that it was only when
he was actually standing in her room that he remembered how very bitter
their parting had been.

He stood looking at her doubtfully, and it was she who came forward and
put her arms about him. They clung to each other like two children who
have been frightened by a nightmare.

"We mustn't quarrel again, George," she said. "I've had a real, true,
old-fashioned pain in my heart all day. But I think I understand better
now than I did. I lunched with Betty and she made me see."

"What did Betty make you see?" asked George nervously, for he had not
perfect confidence in Miss Sheridan's visions.

"That it was all a question of efficiency. She said that in business a
man's stenographer is just an instrument to make his work easier, and if
for any reason at all that instrument does not suit him he is justified
in getting rid of it, and in finding one that does."

"Betty is very generous," he said coldly. He wanted to hear his wife say
that she had not thought him pompous; it was very hard to be thankful
for a mere ethical rehabilitation.

Part of his thought-out plan was that Genevieve must herself tell him
of the Woman's Forum's investigation; it would not do for him to let
her know he had heard of it through a political eavesdropper. So after a
moment he added casually:

"And what else did Betty have to say?"

"Nothing much."

His heart sank. Was Genevieve becoming uncandid?

"Nothing else," he said. "Just to justify me in your eyes?"

She hesitated, "No, that was not quite all, but it is too early to talk
about it yet."

"Anything that interests you, my dear, I should like to hear about from
the beginning." Perhaps Genevieve was not so unemotional after all, for
at this expression of his affection, her eyes filled with tears.

"I long to tell you," she said. "I only hesitated on your account, but
of course I want all your help and advice. It's this: There seems to
be no doubt that the conditions under which women are working in
our factories are hideous--dangerous--the law is broken with perfect
impunity. I know you can't act on rumors and hearsay. Even the
inspectors don't give out the truth. And so we are going to persuade the
Woman's Forum to abandon its old policy of mere discussion.

"We--Betty and I--are going to get the members for once to act--to make
an investigation; so that the instant you come into the office you will
have complete inf