After she had finished, she started upstairs. In passing her father’s study, she saw his eyes upon her. Before she could move on up the steps, he came to the doorway, noting her disheveled appearance.
“A hard day at the office?” he inquired evenly.
Penny could not know how much her father already had learned, but from the twinkle of his eyes she suspected that DeWitt had telephoned him the details of her disgrace.
“Oh, just a little overtime work,” she flung carelessly over her shoulder. “See you in the morning.”
Penny took a hot bath and climbed into bed. Then she climbed out again and carefully set the clock alarm for eight o’clock. Snuggling down once more, she went almost instantly to sleep.
It seemed that she scarcely had closed her eyes when the alarm jangled in her ear. Drowsily, Penny reached and turned it off. She rolled over to go to sleep again, then suddenly realized she was a working woman and leaped from bed.
She dressed hurriedly and joined her father at the breakfast table. He had two papers spread before him, the Star, and its rival, the Daily Times. Penny knew from her father’s expression that he had been comparing the explosion stories of the two papers, and was not pleased.
“Any news this morning?” she inquired a bit too innocently.
Her father shot back a quick, quizzical look, but gave no further indication that he suspected she might have had any connection with the Conway Steel Plant story.
“Oh, they did a little dynamiting last night,” he replied, shoving the papers toward her. “The Times had very good pictures.”