There was a rustle of skirts above, and a whispered consultation. In fifteen minutes' time Mrs. Thorpe descended the stairs, looking cool and beautiful in a pale blue silken wrapper.
"The maid was quite mistaken," she asserted sweetly. "I was taking a little rest, and she thought I had gone out. Oh, yes,—you have that bill. How troublesome for you to have had the long walk for so small an amount! Fifteen dollars, is it? Please receipt the bill. And you have change there! May I trouble you to change this five-dollar bill for me, as well?"
Theodore tucked the fifteen dollars, three crisp notes, into his pocket, with satisfaction, and receipted the bill for the silken lady. Then he counted out to her five dollars in change, and taking his hat, bowed himself out. He was flushed with pride at having outwitted the notorious Mrs. Thorpe. The other clerks at the store had tried innumerable times to collect this bill. He hurried over the hot pavements toward the store, the success of this undertaking driving Myrtle Blanchard and the other girls, for the time, from his mind.
Mr. Brown was still at the desk when he reached the store. He handed in the three bills with conscious triumph. "And the five dollars in change, I gave you?" suggested Mr. Brown pleasantly.
"Oh, I exchanged that for——" he stopped suddenly, with a startled air. He had given Mrs. Thorpe the five dollars in silver, but she had given him no bill in return. He remembered now, distinctly. He was perfectly sure.
"You may have lost it," corrected Mr. Brown gravely. "You must be careful not to attribute its loss to Mrs. Thorpe. She is one of our wealthiest customers. However, you may go back and inquire."
Mrs. Thorpe rustled down at Theodore's second summons. Certainly, she had given him the bill! He had probably lost it on the street. Then she rustled upstairs again, and Nora, the maid, showed him out.
The brick buildings that radiated the heat, and the dusty streets with their clanging cars, swam before his tired and angry eyes. "A woman that would lie, might steal," he reflected fiercely. "Mrs. Thorpe has that five-dollar bill, together with the change I gave her, in her purse!"
He took his way back, in helpless anger and misery, to the store, and reported once more at the desk.