pick up chunks of it and carry off."

"Been asleep?"

"I don't think!" she laughed. "I'm not minded to lose my job. Suppose
some peevish woman wanted a doctor and she couldn't raise me; do you
think I'd last longer than the morning and the manager's arrival? Nay!
Nay!"

"It's an unsympathetic world, isn't it, Miss Williams?"

"Only when you're down--otherwise it's not half bad. Say, maybe here's
one of your men now; he's walking down. Shall I stop him?"

"No, no, let him go. When he's gone, tell me if he's slender, or stout,
or has a moustache and imperial."

"Sure, I will."

Through the telephone Harleston could hear someone descend the stairs,
cross the lobby, and the revolving doors swing around.

The next moment, the operator's voice came with a bit of laugh.

"Are you there, Mr. Harleston?"

"I'm here."

"Well, your man was a woman--and she was accidentally deliberately
careful that I shouldn't see her face."