GRINNIDGE, remaining quietly at the register, while Ransom walks away
to the window: "Well, what did you do?"

MISS REED: "There, there! They're commencing again! DO open it,
Nettie. I WILL have it open!" She wrenches herself free, and dashes
the register open.

GRINNIDGE: "Ah, she's opened it again."

Miss Reed, in a stage-whisper: "That's the other one!"

RANSOM, from the window: "Do? I'll tell you what I did."

MISS REED: "That's Ol--Mr. Ransom. And, oh, I can't make out what
he's saying! He must have gone away to the other side of the room--
and it's at the most important point!"

MISS SPAULDING, in an awful undertone: "Was that the hollow rumbling
I heard? And have you been listening at the register to what they've
been saying? O ETHEL!"

MISS REED: "I haven't been listening, exactly."

MISS SPAULDING: "You have! You have been eavesdropping!"

MISS REED: "Eavesdropping is listening through a key-hole, or around
a corner. This is very different. Besides, it's Oliver, and he's
been talking about ME. Hark!" She clutches her friend's hand, where
they have crouched upon the floor together, and pulls her forward to
the register. "Oh, dear, how hot it is! I wish they would cut off