"Oh, yes," she replied. "I opened it quite easily this morning. It is a bit catchy."
The key kept going round and round.
"Here! I 'll do it," she said wearily.
"Oh, no!" he urged.
But she rose courageously, and tottered to the desk, and took the bunch off him.
"I 'm afraid you 've broken something in the lock," she announced, which gentle resignation, after she had tried to open the desk and failed.
"Have I?" he mumbled. He knew that he was not shining.
"Would you mind calling in at Allman's," she said, resuming her chair, "and tell them to send a man down at once to pick the lock? There 's nothing else for it. Or perhaps you 'd better say first thing to-morrow morning. And then as soon as he 's done it, I 'll call and pay you the money, myself. And you might tell your precious Mr. Herbert Calvert that next quarter I shall give notice to leave."
"Don't you trouble to call, please!" said he. "I can easily pop in here."
She sped him away in an enigmatic tone. He could not be sure whether he had succeeded or failed, in her estimation, as a man of the world and a partaker of delicate teas.