cuously near the door, was not
offensive. A single gas jet burned. The workshop was in the languor of
repose after toil which had officially commenced at 8 a.m.

The perfection of Big James's attitude, an attitude symbolised by the
letting down of his apron, helped to put Edwin at ease in the original
and difficult circumstances. "Good evening, Mr Edwin. Good evening,
miss," was all that the man actually said with his tongue, but the
formality of his majestic gestures indicated in the most dignified way
his recognition of a sharp difference of class and his exact
comprehension of his own role in the affair. He stood waiting: he had
been about to depart, but he was entirely at the disposal of the
company.

"This is Mr Yarlett, our foreman," said Edwin, and to Big James: "Miss
Lessways has just come to look round."

Hilda smiled. Big James suavely nodded his head.

"Here are some of the types," said Edwin, because a big case was the
object nearest him, and he glanced at Big James.

In a moment the foreman was explaining to Hilda, in his superb voice,
the use of the composing-stick, and he accompanied the theory by a
beautiful exposition of the practice; Edwin could stand aside and watch.
Hilda listened and looked with an extraordinary air of sympathetic
interest. And she was so serious, so adult. But it was the quality of
sympathy, he thought, that was her finest, her most attractive. It was
either that or her proud independence, as of a person not accustomed to
bend to the will of others or to go to others for advice. He could not
be sure... No! Her finest quality was her mystery. Even now, as he
gazed at her comfortably, she baffled him; all her exquisite little
movements and intonations baffled him. Of one thing, however, he was
convinced: that she was fundamentally different from other women. There
was she, and there was the rest of the sex.

For appearance's sake he threw in short phrases now and then, to which
Big James, by his mere deportment, gave the importance of the words of a
master.

"I suppose you printers did something special among yourselves to
celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of the invention of printing?"
said Hilda suddenly, glancing from Edwin to Big James. And Big James
and Edwin glanced at one another. Neither had ever heard of the
four-hundredth anniversary of the invention of printing. In a couple of
seconds Big James's downcast eye had made it clear that he regar