After he had opened all the windows and taken off his coat, he fell to dictating. He found it a delightful occupation, the solace of each day. Often he had sudden fits of tiredness; then he would lie down on the leather sofa and drop asleep, while Annie read “The Leopard’s Spots” until he awoke.
Like many another business man Wanning had relied so long on stenographers that the operation of writing with a pen had become laborious to him. When he undertook it, he wanted to cut everything short. But walking up and down his private office, with the strong afternoon sun pouring in at his windows, a fresh air stirring, all the people and boats moving restlessly down there, he could say things he wanted to say. It was like living his life over again.
He did not miss his wife or his daughters. He had become again the mild, contemplative youth he was in college, before he had a profession and a family to grind for, before the two needs which shape our destiny had made of him pretty much what they make of every man.
At five o’clock Wanning sometimes went out for a cup of tea and took Annie along. He felt dull and discouraged as soon as he was alone. So long as Annie was with him, he could keep a grip on his own thoughts. They talked about what he had just been dictating to her. She found that he liked to be questioned, and she tried to be greatly interested in it all.
After tea, they went back to the office. Occasionally Wanning lost track of time and kept Annie until it grew dark. He knew he had old McQuiston guessing, but he didn’t care. One day the senior partner came to him with a reproving air.
“I am afraid Miss Doane is leaving us, Paul. She feels that Miss Wooley’s promotion is irregular.”
“How is that any business of hers, I’d like to know? She has all my legal work. She is always disagreeable enough about doing anything else.”
McQuiston’s puffy red face went a shade darker.
“Miss Doane has a certain professional pride; a strong feeling for office organization. She doesn’t care to fill an equivocal position. I don’t know that I blame her. She feels that there is something not quite regular about the confidence you seem to place in this inexperienced young woman.”
Wanning pushed back his chair.