months' service in the Judge Advocate General's Department in France.
Apparently his warning had fallen on deaf ears and Rochester was
indulging in another periodic spree, for so Kent concluded, recalling
the unsteady penmanship of the note handed to him by the new clerk,
John Sylvester.

Kent was still frowning at the opposite wall when a faint knock
sounded, and at his call Sylvester entered.

"Here are the letters received this morning, sir, and type-written
copies of the answers to yesterday's correspondence which Mr.
Rochester dictated before leaving," Sylvester explained as he
placed the papers on Kent's desk. "If you will o.k. them, I will
mail them at once."

Kent went through the letters with care, and the new clerk rose in
his estimation as he read the excellent dictation of the clearly
typed answers.

"These will do admirably," he announced. "Sit down and I will reply
to the other letters."

At the end of an hour Sylvester closed his stenographic note book
and collected the correspondence, by that time scattered over Kent's
desk.

"I'll have these notes ready for your signature before lunch," he
said as he picked up a newspaper from the floor where it had tumbled
during Kent's search for some particu1ar letter heads. "I brought
in the morning paper, sir; thought perhaps you had not seen it."