"What is your name, miss?"
"Staunton." Effie hesitated for a minute, then she said abruptly, "I am the sister of George Staunton, who is a clerk here."
The moment she uttered the words every clerk in the place looked up with interest, and one, coming up in a somewhat familiar way, said cavalierly:
"I don't think there's the least use in your troubling Mr. Gering; I may as well tell you beforehand that he certainly won't see you."
At this moment a man came out of an inner room. He spoke to the head clerk, who gave him a bundle of letters.
"Take these to Mr. Gering at once," he said.
Effie followed this man with her eyes.
The other clerks stared at her, expecting her to go.
She looked at the one to whom she had first spoken.
"Will you take my message to Mr. Gering?" she said. "Will you tell him that Effie Staunton—George Staunton's sister—wishes to see him on most important business?"