Arthur Chamberlain was dictating a letter to Estelle Woodward,
his sole stenographer. When the crash came he paused, listened,
and then resumed his task.

It was not a difficult one. Talking to Estelle Woodward was at
no time an onerous duty, but it must be admitted that Arthur
Chamberlain found it difficult to keep his conversation strictly
upon his business.

He was at this time engaged in dictating a letter to his principal
creditors, the Gary & Milton Company, explaining that their demand
for the immediate payment of the installment then due upon his office
furniture was untimely and unjust. A young and budding engineer in
New York never has too much money, and when he is young as Arthur
Chamberlain was, and as fond of pleasant company, and not too
fond of economizing, he is liable to find all demands for payment
untimely and he usually considers them unjust as well. Arthur
finished dictating the letter and sighed.

"Miss Woodward," he said regretfully, "I am afraid I shall never
make a successful man."

Miss Woodward shook her head vaguely. She did not seem to take his
remark very seriously, but then, she had learned never to take any of
his remarks seriously. She had been puzzled at first by his manner of
treating everything with a half-joking pessimism, but now ignored it.

She was interested in her own problems. She had suddenly decided
that she was going to be an old maid, and it bothered her. She
had discovered that she did not like any one well enough to marry,