"Hello!" I heard Caroline's voice crying presently, and it warned me to be careful.
Standing at a 'phone it was hard for me to remember that I was far from being quite myself.
"Who's this?" came to my ears from 502, Rector.
"Has--ah--Mr. Stevens reached the office yet?" I asked.
"We expect him every moment. He's late this morning," came the answer in a man's voice, (I had grown very sensitive to sex in voices.) "Who is this?"
"I am--ah--Mrs. Stevens." Suddenly, I realized that I was talking to Morse, my head-clerk. How he happened to be in my inner office puzzled me. "Anything new this morning, Morse?" I inquired, impulsively. There was a sound that can be described as an electric gurgle at his end of the line.
"Hello," he cried, above a buzzing of the wires that might have been caused by his astonishment. "Are you still there, Mrs. Stevens?"
"Well, rather," I said to myself. Then aloud: "Will you kindly call me up--ah--Mr. Morse, the moment Mr. Stevens arrives?"
"On the instant, Mrs. Stevens," said Morse, deferentially.
Curiosity overcame my discretion.