CHAPTER VII

MR. SLOTMAN ARRIVES AT A MISUNDERSTANDING


At half-past nine on the Monday morning Miss Joan Meredyth walked into
Mr. Slotman's office, and Mr. Slotman, seeing her, turned his head aside
to hide the smirk of satisfaction.

"Women," he said to himself, "are all alike. They give themselves
confounded airs and graces, but when it comes to the point, they aren't
born fools. She knows jolly well she wouldn't get another job in a
hurry, and here she is."

But Mr. Slotman made up his mind to go cautiously and carefully. He
would not let Miss Meredyth witness his sense of satisfaction.

"I am glad you have returned, Miss Meredyth. I felt sure that you would;
there's no reason whatever we shouldn't get on perfectly well."

The girl gave him a stiff little inclination of her head. She had done
much personal violence to her sense of pride, yet she had come back
because the alternative--worklessness, possible starvation and
homelessness--had not appealed to her. And, after all, knowing Mr.
Slotman to be what he was, she was forewarned and forearmed.

So Joan came back and took up her old work, and Mr. Slotman practised
temporarily a courtesy and a forbearance that were foreign to him. But