She held the sheets of paper on her knee, and bent her head over them.
Tembarom watched her dimples flash in and out as she worked away
like a child correcting an exercise. Presently he saw she was quite
absorbed. Sometimes she stopped and thought, pressing her lips
together; sometimes she changed a letter. There was no lightness in
her manner. A badly mutilated stocking would have claimed her
attention in the same way.

"I think I'd put 'house' there instead of 'mansion' if I were you,"
she suggested once.

"Put in a whole block of houses if you like," he answered gratefully.
"Whatever you say goes. I believe Galton would say the same thing."

She went over sheet after sheet, and though she knew nothing about it,
she cut out just what Galton would have cut out. She put the papers
together at last and gave them back to Tembarom, getting up from her
seat.

"I must go back to father now," she said. "I promised to make him a
good cup of coffee over the little oil-stove. If you'll come and
knock at the door I'll give you one. It will help you to keep fresh
while you work."

Tembarom did not go to bed at all that night, and he looked rather
fagged the next morning when he handed back the "stuff" entirely
rewritten. He swallowed several times quite hard as he waited for the
final verdict.