“You are right; I have. I am going to do the only thing that seems to me possible just now.”
“And that is?”
“Seek out Miss Joan Meredyth, and ask her to become my wife in reality.”
CHAPTER VII
MR. SLOTMAN ARRIVES AT A MISUNDERSTANDING
At half-past nine on the Monday morning Miss Joan Meredyth walked into Mr. Slotman’s office, and Mr. Slotman, seeing her, turned his head aside to hide the smirk of satisfaction.
“Women,” he said to himself, “are all alike. They give themselves confounded airs and graces, but when it comes to the point, they aren’t born fools. She knows jolly well she wouldn’t get another job in a hurry, and here she is.”
But Mr. Slotman made up his mind to go cautiously and carefully. He would not let Miss Meredyth witness his sense of satisfaction.
“I am glad you have returned, Miss Meredyth. I felt sure that you would; there’s no reason whatever we shouldn’t get on perfectly well.”
The girl gave him a stiff little inclination of her head. She had done much personal violence to her sense of pride, yet she had come back because the alternative—worklessness, possible starvation and homelessness—had not appealed to her. And, after all, knowing Mr. Slotman to be what he was, she was forewarned and forearmed.