Grace, who had been watching Carl closely, grew furious, so much so, that she ground her teeth and bit her lips until the blood appeared.
After Carl had again glanced over Sana’s message, he placed it in his pocket and summoned Grace into his private office to take dictation. Grace rose unsteadily from her chair, believing that Carl would dictate a message to Sana. That she determined, she would not stand for. Then the thought flashed through her mind that Carl surely would not expect her to attend to his love affairs.
Carl commenced to dictate a business letter, but his mind was far from the subject. Repeatedly he corrected himself and requested his secretary to read and re-read the notes which she had taken down. This mental disturbance in the usually fine poise of her employer could not go by Grace unnoticed. It served to anger her all the more to realize that his love for Sana had the power to drive all else from his mind and make him even oblivious to the duties of his office.
Grace had read the letter back to him for the fourth time when Carl, even in his confused mental state realized that there was neither sense nor reason in what he had dictated. So he decided to commence again. A new beginning was made but that was about all. At last with a thin and rather wan smile he gave it up for the time being, dismissing his secretary with the words “Never mind, just now. I will get the letter out before five. Don’t fail to remind me of it.”
A strange look had settled over Grace’s countenance as she returned to her desk. A serious expression it was, born of the thought of the withheld cablegram and the purloined letter. She had suffered far more in proportion to her doings than the satisfaction she had derived from them.
Presently Carl entered her office and in a strangely calm voice asked, “Miss Huntington, do you know if there is another party in this building by the name of Lohman? There was a cablegram and a letter that I should have received probably some ten days ago.”
“I do not know,” was her rather quickly spoken reply, and a flush that spread over her face, but without any apparent hesitation she went on with her work. Fortunately, Carl did not notice her embarrassment.
“It is very strange. I ought to be able to find out the particulars of delivery at the cable office. Would you be kind enough to drop in there on your way to lunch and inquire if they have any record for the last two weeks, or longer, of receiving and delivering a cablegram for me from Timbuktoo, Africa? You know, when they deliver a cablegram the receiver must sign for it.”
“Yes, surely, with pleasure,” came with difficulty from Grace’s pale lips and then momentarily summoning courage, she added, “Were you expecting a cablegram?”
“No, but I received a letter in which it was stated that a cablegram had been sent.”