"Can't say, I'm sure, what the governor expects," he replied,
falsely. "You'll have to do the best you can, I suppose. Better get
on with those invoices now."

Once more the office resounded to the hum of its varied labors. Mr.
Jarvis, dictating letters to a typist, smiled occasionally as he
pictured the arrival of this over-favored young man in the
drawing-room of Mrs. Weatherley, attired in the nondescript fashion
which his words had suggested. One or two of the clerks ventured
upon a chaffing remark. To all appearance, the person most absorbed
in his work was the young man who had been singled out for such
especial favor.




CHAPTER II

RUTH


In the topmost chamber of the last of a row of somber gray stone
houses in Adam Street a girl with a thin but beautiful face and
large, expectant eyes sat close to the bare, uncurtained window,
from which it was possible to command a view of the street below. A
book which she had apparently been reading had fallen neglected onto
the floor. Steadfastly she watched the passers-by. Her delicate,
expressive features were more than once illuminated with joy, only
to be clouded, a moment later, with disappointment. The color came
and went in her cheeks, as though, indeed, she were more sensitive