"You mean you're not a sieve."
She smiled.
"By the Gods, I did not know you ever used a smile! What kind of person are you, anyway?"
She rose at that, as if to end the interview. He went back to his work.
"Oh, I say, Jane Judd, I didn't mean to offend you, just when you had smiled at me for the first time in five years' acquaintance," he called out to her.
"All right," she replied briefly.
Jerry made a grimace and forgot her.
As work began to pile up; as this committee and that committee had to consult with him; as the costumers had to be argued with, stuffs selected; in fact, as the whole big machine began to revolve on Jerry as axis, he frequently sent out a hurry call for Jane Judd to get him some lunch or some dinner. He went on with his work while he ate, and never again did he try to pierce the subterranean depths of Jane's personality.
The last two weeks of preparation were hectic. Jerry's endurance was wonderful, but his nerves were worn thin. At the eleventh hour the costumers decided that they could not turn out the gowns for the "vestal virgins," on time. They broke the news to Jerry over the 'phone one frantic day when everything had gone wrong.
"My God! what am I going to do?" he burst out, as he hung up the receiver.