go out of town for some weeks to pull
himself together again--it was the traditional course--and
if such an exigency occurred before July the office would
go to pieces under the pressure of events. So he waited,
becoming every day more enthusiastically aware of the
great advantage of having Miss Bell permanently connected
with the paper under supervision which would be even more
highly authorized than an editor's, and growing at the
same time more thoroughly impressed with the unusual
character of her personal charm. Elfrida was a "find" to
Mr. Arthur Rattray from a newspaper point of view--a
find he gave himself credit for sagaciously recognizing,
and one which it would be expedient to obtain complete
possession of before its market value should become known.
And it was hardly possible for Mr. Rattray to divest
himself of the newspaper point of view in the consideration
of anything which concerned him personally. It struck
him as uniquely fortunate that his own advantage and that
of the _Age_ should tally, as it undoubtedly might in
this instance; and that, for Arthur Rattray, was putting
the matter in a rather high, almost disinterested
connection.

It is doubtful whether to this day Mr. Rattray fully
understands his rejection, it was done so deftly, so
frankly, yet with such a delicate consideration for his
feelings. He took it, he assured himself afterward,
without winking; but it is unlikely that he felt
sufficiently indebted to the manner of its administration,
in congratulating himself upon this point. It may be,
too, that he left Miss Bell with the impression that her
intention never to marry was not an immovable one, given
indefinite time and indefinite abstention, on his part,
from alluding to the subject. Certainly he found himself
surprisingly little cast down by the event, and more
resolved than ever to make the editor-in-chief admit that
Elfrida's contributions were "the brightest things in
the paper," and act accordingly. He realized, in the
course of time, that he had never been very confident of
any other answer; but nothing is more certain than that
it acted as a curious stimulus to his interest in Elfrida's
work. He found a co-enthusiast in Golightly Ticke, and
on more than one occasion they agreed that something,
must be done to bring Miss Bell before the public, to
put within her reach the opportunity of the success she
deserved, which was of the order Mr. Rattray described
as "screaming."