“I wish to see Mrs. Davis,” and Latimer handed her a visiting card.
“Yas, suh, sutenly, suh.” Magnolia, meeting his friendly smile, grinned from ear to ear, then bolted with astonishing rapidity out of the room. She was totally oblivious of the fact that her youthful, penetrating voice, raised to a pitch to reach Mrs. Davis standing on the top stair landing, carried her words to Latimer’s ears.
“Dar’s a splendiferous lookin’ gentle’um in his Sunday clothes waitin’ ter see yo’; no, ma’am, he didn’t arsk fo’ Miss Polly, jes’ fo’ you’—he’s got on great big spectacles and a top hat. What dat—you wish de gentle’um’s cyard? Laws, ’scuse me, I done forgot”—and with a loud snicker, Magnolia raced up the steps and pushed the pasteboard into Mrs. Davis’s outstretched hand.
Latimer had met Mrs. Davis a number of times at Mrs. Hale’s and she had chaperoned a number of parties given in Polly’s honor by John Hale. She looked extremely pretty, with her soft gray hair becomingly dressed, her cheeks, unwrinkled in spite of multiplied cares, held a deeper touch of color as she entered the parlor and greeted Latimer. He admired her gentle manner and her air of breeding which no contact with the rough workaday world had the power to efface.
“I trust I have not disturbed you by selecting this unconventional hour to call,” he began, seating himself somewhat gingerly on the edge of a rickety antique chair which had been the pride of Polly’s great grandfather. “Your maid said that Miss Polly was out, and as my errand is somewhat urgent, I asked to see you.”
Mrs. Davis’s brilliant color receded somewhat and her left hand played nervously with her chain of coral from which was suspended a gold locket.
“You are always welcome,” she said, “no matter what your errand.”
“Thanks,” and Latimer, much touched, smiled with equal cordiality. “I am in immediate need of a first class stenographer, and I wondered if I could persuade Miss Polly to forsake Robert Hale and come to me. I will double her present salary.”
Mrs. Davis drew in her breath. “That is a handsome offer,” she exclaimed. “Of course I cannot answer for Polly, but, as she has already resigned her position with Robert Hale—”
“She has resigned, then?”