He looked down at her. The hair grew very soft and blonde at the
nape of her neck, and he ran a finger lightly across it. "Tell me
that."

"I was afraid it would."

"And, even if it had, which you are a goose for thinking, you're
just as good in your line as your father is in his. I've been
expecting any time to hear of your leaving me for a handsomer man!"

He had been what he would have termed jollying her back to normality
again. But to his intense surprise she suddenly leaned back and
looked up into his face. There was no doubting what he saw there.
Just for a moment the situation threatened to get out of hand. Then
he patted her shoulders and put the safety of his desk between them.

"Run away and bathe your eyes," he said, "and then come back here
looking like the best secretary in the state, and not like a winter
thaw. We have the deuce of a lot of work to do."

But after she had gone he sat for some little time idly rapping a
pencil on the top of his desk. By Jove! Anna Klein! Of all girls
in the world! It was rather a pity, too. She was a nice little
thing, and in the last few months she had changed a lot. She had
been timid at first, and hideously dressed. Lately she had been
almost smart. Those ear-rings now - they changed her a lot. Queer
- how things went on in a girl's mind, and a fellow didn't know
until something happened. He settled his tie and smoothed back his
heavy hair.