“I’m not working too hard!” said Miss Clare, perilously close to tears. “I don’t want any lunch. I want to finish these letters.”
“No, no, no, no!” said he pleasantly. “That won’t do. We can’t have that!”
The poor creature was blandly hustled out of the office, well knowing that Miss[Pg 86] Kelly would be questioned about her, and that Miss Kelly would answer with complete frankness.
But neither Miss Clare nor any other person could have imagined what actually took place. Personally, while giving due credit to Mr. Reddiman’s kind heart, acumen, and wisdom, I am inclined to give still more credit to Miss Clare’s eyes; for I assure you that those eyes, when filled with tears and raised to your face, were terribly potent. As I said before, they were blue, but only the advertising department could adequately describe the sort of blue.
Listen to the sequel, and bear in mind that I saw her look up at Mr. Reddiman. I know that if I had been Mr. Reddiman, I, too—
Well, he went in to see Mr. Graves, whom he greatly admired and valued.
“In regard to this—er—Miss Clare,” he said. “I hear from Miss Kelly—”
“Yes, I know,” Graves answered miserably. “I’m going to discharge her this afternoon.”
“You would be doing very wrong,” said Mr. Reddiman severely.
Graves was naturally astounded.