"Oh, quite. It's very kind of you to be so considerate."
Dr. Pedloe rose, his dignity saved. "Perhaps I shall call upon your organization some day for a return favor."
Jean wanted to wink at him, but she held out her hand.
"We shall be more than glad."
They shook hands, and Dr. Pedloe turned to his desk as if, in the half hour's talk, mammoth duties had accumulated. Jean let herself out.
Down on the sidewalk she stood still and laughed until she realized that people were staring.
"He did it, got it in by the tail, but got it. Fired, by Gosh!"
She could scarcely keep from telling Ben as he took her up in the elevator to her own office, or Miss Grimes, who was the only one in. But the former would have been so puzzled and the latter so indignant, that she refrained. Besides, only two people could get the full flavor, Mary and Gregory. She was going to have tea with him at half past four, and there was not a spare moment before that. Mary would have to wait.
In the privacy of her own office, Jean stood in the middle of the floor and stretched her arms to the spring air pouring in at the open window.
"It's going to be another glorious summer. A perfectly ripping summer."