ance."

The careful toilette made its first impression upon the surly-looking
Irish porter, who, like a gruff and faithful watch-dog, guarded the
entrance to the editorial rooms of the _Bugle_. He was enclosed in a
kind of glass-framed sentry-box, with a door at the side, and a small
arched aperture that was on a level with his face as he sat on a high
stool. He saw to it, not too politely, that no one went up those stairs
unless he had undoubted right to do so. When he caught a glimpse of Miss
Baxter, he slid off the stool and came out of the door to her, which
was an extraordinary concession to a visitor, for Pat Ryan contented
himself, as a usual thing, by saying curtly that the editor was busy,
and could see no one.

"What did you wish, miss? To see the editor? That's Mr. Hardwick. Have
ye an appointment with him? Ye haven't; then I very much doubt if ye'll
see him this day, mum. It's far better to write to him, thin ye can
state what ye want, an' if he makes an appointment there'll be no
throuble at all, at all."

"But why should there be any trouble now?" asked Miss Baxter. "The
editor is here to transact business, just as you are at the door to do
the same. I have come on business, and I want to see him. Couldn't you
send up my name to Mr. Hardwick, and tell him I will keep him but a few
moments?"

"Ah, miss, that's what they all say; they ask for a few moments an' they
shtay an hour. Not that there'd be any blame to an editor if he kept you
as long as he could. An' it's willing I'd be to take up your name, but
I'm afraid that it's little good it 'ud be after doin' ye. There's more
than a dozen men in the waitin'-room now, an' they've been there for
the last half-hour. Not a single one I've sent up has come down again."

"But surely," said Miss Jennie, in her most coaxing tone, "there must be
some way to see even such a great man as the editor, and if there is,
you know the way."

"Indade, miss, an' I'm not so sure there is a way, unless you met him in
the strate, which is unlikely. As I've told ye, there's twelve men now
waitin' for him in the big room. Beyont that room there's another one,
an' beyont that again is Mr. Hardwick's office. Now, it's as much as my
place is worth, mum, to put ye in that room beyont the one where the
men are waitin'; but, to tell you the truth, miss," said the Irishman,
lowering his voice, as if he were divulging office secrets, "Mr.
Hardwick, who is a difficult man to deal wi