nd, vexed that this first
encounter with her should have been such an unfortunate one, he went
away, but decided to take counsel with one of the other heads of the
firm if he should arrive first; or, if not, to see Mr. James and make
his peace with him, if necessary, before Stella made any complaint.

As fortune would have it, the senior partner, Mr. Baines, arrived soon
after, and to him the head-clerk took his tale.

Mr. Baines heard him in silence. 'Mr. James says she's a very good
clerk, and I should imagine she is trustworthy; but one never knows.
I've never seen the young lady myself. They say she is good-looking and
very proud,' he remarked at last.

'She is both, sir; in fact, she's the prettiest young lady I've ever
seen in my life. But proud!--proud isn't the word for it; she positively
freezes you up. She looked so odd when I asked her why she wanted the
letters that, upon my word, I didn't half like it; one never knows with
women, not the best of them, sir,' said the head-clerk.

Mr. Baines laughed. 'Anyway, I should not worry about it; you did quite
right not to give the letters to her, and if Mr. James says anything to
me about it I shall take your part. If he had wished her to open his
correspondence he should have given her his written authority; it would
never do if any clerk who liked could ask for our letters, and so I
shall tell him,' he declared.

The head-clerk went away, and hoped that he had done right. And Stella
waited, with what patience she could, for Mr. James Jones's arrival,
which was not until half-past ten, when she heard his step along the
passage--there was no mistaking it, because it was so light and springy,
the step of a man who loved and lived as much as was possible in the
country. In fact, Stella had owned to herself that if she had met him in
society she should have taken him for a country gentleman or a sailor,
certainly not for a business man, which he clearly was from choice,
since Mrs. Ryan said that he was very rich, and that he could retire
from business to-morrow.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE JUNIOR PARTNER.

Some months later it would have seemed impossible to Stella that she had
worked herself into a state about such a trifle as a foolish letter from
Vava to the junior partner, which, as she owned to herself, said nothing
but the truth, for she knew she was stiff and proud, and that poverty
made her stiffer and prouder, and that Mr. Jones knew it, and was far
to