"That I'm not so useless, after all," she answered.
"A bit rough on the girl reporter that has to work for her living," he said, with quiet bitterness, "There's lots of 'em, right now, looking for work. But just a lark for the girl with money, who can use her social position to land a job."
"Most undignified and unnecessary," said Pat, with a disdainful note in her voice. "But it just doesn't happen to apply in my case."
McGinity, with a little twinge of remorse, coughed awkwardly, and was about to mutter something, when he saw the City Editor moving towards them.
"Sorry, Miss Nolan," said the City Editor, eyeing McGinity a little suspiciously, "but I want to remind you that all copy must be turned in by seven o'clock. Tomorrow we go to press an hour earlier, so please have your copy in, on the Domestic Relations Court, promptly at six." Then he turned to McGinity. "Miss Nolan—Nora Nolan—is our latest recruit, Mac, if you haven't been properly introduced. No doubt you've read her two recent signed articles? Pretty good, don't you think?"
McGinity smiled bitterly. Before he could speak, Pat smiled up at the City Editor, and said: "Mr. McGinity and I have met before, but he doesn't know me by my pen name, Nora Nolan. He's a bit surprised, and I don't wonder at it."
The City Editor grinned. "I quite expected to find that it wasn't your real name," he said. "But it was your descriptive talent, Miss Nolan, that attracted me, and your nose for finding news in the most ordinary things. That's why I gave you the chance."
"Thanks," Pat murmured, smiling, and the City Editor walked away. Then she looked at McGinity, and said: "Awful sorry, Bob, and all that, but I must get on with my story."
McGinity went red and felt a fool. He seated himself at a vacant desk, opposite to hers, lit a cigarette, and watched her work.
Her notes a blur, Pat thought: "Bob's terribly angry with me. He's making me awfully unhappy." Then her mind went off on a new tack. "Suppose he doesn't really love me? Perhaps I've made a terrible mistake. Oh, dear! But I shall always love him—dear Bob! I shall go on loving him with the gift of love ungiven, always in my heart, always beautiful, like a shrine of dreams...."