n. In a week or two he was literary again. He dashed down to the
office-manager, poked a sheet of copy-paper at him, and yelped: "Say,
Nat. Read that and tell me just what you think of it. I'm going to put
some literary flavor into the _Gas-bag_ even if it does explode it.
Look--see. I've taken a boost for the Kells Karburetor--rotten lying
boost it is, too--and turned it into this running verse, read it like
prose, pleasant and easy to digest, especially beneficial to children
and S. Herbert Souse, Sherbert Souse, I mean." He rapidly read an
amazing lyric beginning, "Motorists, you hadn't better monkey with the
carburetor, all the racers, all the swells, have equipped their cars
with Kells. We are privileged to announce what will give the trade a
jounce, that the floats have been improved like all motorists would have
loved."

He broke off and shouted, "Punk last line, but I'll fix it up. Say,
that'll get 'em all going, eh? Say, I bet the Kells people use it in
bill-board ads. all over the country, and maybe sign my name. Ads., why
say, it takes a literary guy to write ads., not a fat-headed
commercialist like S. Charlie Hoss."

Two days later Una heard Babson come out and lament that the managing
editor didn't like his masterpiece and was going to use the Kells
Karburetor Kompany's original write-up. "That's what you get when you
try to give the _Gas-bag_ some literary flavor--don't appreciate it!"

She would rather have despised him, except that he stopped by the
office-boys' bench to pull their hair and tell them to read English
dictionaries. And when Miss Moynihan looked dejected, Babson demanded of
her, "What's trouble, girlie? Anybody I can lick for you? Glad to fire
the owner, or anything. Haven't met you yet, but my name is Roosevelt,
and I'm the new janitor," with a hundred other chuckling idiocies, till
Miss Moynihan was happy again. Una warmed to his friendliness, like that
of a tail-wagging little yellow pup.

And always she craved the touch of his dark, blunt, nervous hands.
Whenever he lighted a cigarette she was startled by his masculine way
of putting out the match and jerking it away from him in one abrupt
motion.... She had never studied male mannerisms before. To Miss Golden
of Panama men had always been "the boys."

All this time Walter Babson had never spoken to her.

CHAPTER V

The office-manager came casually up to Una's desk and said, "You haven't
taken any dictation yet, have yo