The door opened. “Anybody in?” asked the face of Johnny Bulstrode, appearing in the jar.
“Can’t you see they are?” snapped Tommy.
“Figure of speech,” explained Johnny Bulstrode, commonly called “the Babe,” entering and closing the door behind him.
“What do you want?” demanded the sub-editor.
“Nothing in particular,” replied the Babe.
“Wrong time of the day to come for it, half-past eleven in the morning,” explained the sub-editor.
“What’s the matter with you?” asked the Babe.
“Feeling very cross,” confessed the sub-editor.
The childlike face of the Babe expressed sympathetic inquiry.
“We are very indignant,” explained Miss Ramsbotham, “because we are not allowed to rush off to Cannon Street and coax an advertisement out of old Jowett, the soap man. We feel sure that if we only put on our best hat, he couldn’t possibly refuse us.”