Not an hour later Mrs. Stephen O’Valley’s card was taken in to Mary Faithful as she sat trying to work in the new office––it never ceased to be new to her. She had heard the swift rumours of Steve’s failure. Understanding that the visitor’s card had a deeper significance than the messenger who delivered it realized, Mary closed the outer doors of her office and waited for her guest.
It was a very Gorgeous Girl who swept serenely into the room and lost no time in introducing the nature of her errand.
“I don’t know how well informed you are in business reports,” she began in her high-pitched voice, “but perhaps you have heard–––”
“The report of the new leather trust––without including your husband’s factory? Yes––but it was bound to come. I always told him so.”
Beatrice lost sight of the business introduction she had so carefully planned while dressing and then driving downtown.
“You have told my husband a great many things, haven’t you?” she insisted. “Don’t seem to be surprised. I am quite well informed.”
She was scrutinizing Mary as she talked. Within her mind was the undeniable thought that there was something about this thin, tall woman with gray eyes which was real and comforting. She even wished that Steve had fallen in love with someone else, and 309 that she, Beatrice, might have come to Mary for comfort and advice. If any one could have set her right with herself it would be just such a good-looking thing, as Trudy used to say, a commercial nun who had kept her ideals and was not bereft of ideas. Faith and intellect had been properly introduced in Mary’s mind.
Mary blushed. “I have always wished to speak to you about something Mrs. Vondeplosshe told you shortly before her death. Won’t you sit down? I am sure we have much to say to each other.”
Beatrice found herself obeying like a docile child. As she took a chair facing Mary’s desk she realized that in just such a kind, practical fashion would Mary proceed to manage Steve, that the years of experience in the business world as an independent woman would give Mary quite a new-fashioned charm in his eyes. Whether she was dealing with gigantic business interests in deft fashion or showing tenderness for the little girl who puts away her dolls for the last time, Mary possessed a flexibility of comprehension and power. One could not be cheap in dealings with her. And as the eternal sex barrier was not present in Beatrice’s behalf she realized that her jargon so impulsively planned would never be said. Nor could she dismiss Mary patronizingly and say the halfway melodramatic things she had said to Steve. It occurred to her as Mary began to talk that Mary had been brave enough to love, not merely be loved, the truth of this causing her to wince within.
“In a malicious moment Trudy told you of my––my affection for your husband. It is true, if that is what you have come to ask me about. I told myself months ago that if you did come to ask me this thing 310 I should answer you truthfully, and we must remain at least polite acquaintances over a hard situation. I think I have played fairly.” Mary’s face had a tired look that bore proof to the statement. “I even left his employ. As I once told you from an impersonal statement, I have a theory that many business women of to-day are in love with someone in their office. Propinquity perhaps and the shut-in existence that they lead account for much of it. Yet no woman is a true woman who forgets her employer is a married or engaged man.