He reddened, and looked anything but pleased at the compliment. “Do you know that you have just said that I am a jay newspaper man?” he asked.
But Patience only continued to smile, and in a moment he smiled back at her, then, with an impatient exclamation, left her and returned to his desk.
VII
Two months later Steele asked her to come to the office at six o’clock, an hour at which the evening room was empty, and suggested that she should give up reporting, and start a column of paragraphs.
“I should like it better, of course,” said Patience, after he had fully explained the requirements of the new department. “I was going to tell you that I would not go to that Morgue again.”
“Oh, you wouldn’t? Well, you stood it rather longer than I thought you would.”
“And I’m tired of interviewing insolent conceited people. Oh, by the way, I should thank you for all these nice things you’ve just said to me.”
He dropped his business-like manner suddenly. “How do you stand it?” he asked. Then in reply to her look of surprise: “Oh, you know, the Chief, when he went away, told me to look out for you.”
Patience immediately became the charming woman accustomed to the homage of man. Steele’s pre-eminence was gone from that moment.
“I am remarkably well, thank you, considering how you have bullied me—and I can tell you that I did not fancy at all being ordered about by such an infant.”