“I’ve good news for you,” he said later. “I’ve a typist coming up to see me in a few minutes. I have decided that you need a typist if we are to ever have clean copy.”
They laughed.
The typist came in and Langley looked her over. She was a washed-out girl with a freckled face and stringy hair. She had come in answer to Langley’s advertisement and with a memory of having seen her somewhere before, he took her into his office to question her. Finally he asked her:
“Haven’t I seen you in somebody’s office around here?”
“Yes,” said Miss Christie, “I used to work for Mr. John Hubbell.”
Langley winced. That was it. His momentary impulse to dismiss the girl she guessed from his manner.
“I left town right after that,” she went on, “and I have only just come back. Mrs. Hubbell sent me away for a while and then I found work in Chicago. But it’s hot and lonely there and I thought that the trouble would be all over and the reporters would leave me alone, so I came back.”
“How long had you been with Mr. Hubbell?”
“Six years, sir—since I left business college. There never was anyone who treated me so well.”
Perhaps out of loyalty to any of Jack’s friends or even employees, he engaged her. For he did engage her and took her out to Horatia. “We will share Miss Christie, Miss Grant,” he said. “Try to get your typing done while I am out of the office.”