"You can count on me for my half. Shake hands on the bargain!" cried Helen, in the exhilaration following emotion sustained, and Smith gravely took her hand in his own. For a moment they stood side by side looking out on the East River which O'Connor's office overlooked, and for a space neither spoke. Then Helen returned somewhat sedately to her seat, and demurely spoke to Smith's back:—
"Well, my present interest in the fire insurance business is all that its most ardent champion could wish."
The underwriter turned back to her.
"I'm awfully glad if I haven't bored you," he said. "I've been holding forth like a vendor at a county fair. But I didn't mean to do it."
"You know you haven't bored me," she replied. "But I must be going now. I thank you very much for the trouble you have taken with my education. I hope it will not turn out to be altogether barren."
"I hope it will not," returned Smith, politely.
She was about to turn to the door. The underwriter made no move.
"Shall I say good-by now?" she asked.
"Here better than elsewhere. Good-by."
And then, to her subsequent surprise, Helen found herself saying:—