aking out the intervening
carbons, quickly bound each set with heavier cover, and then stood
before him with her work. The pale yellow gleam of the wintry twilight
was streaming through the west window, the most unbecoming and trying
ever girl had to face, and she faced it unflinchingly. Forrest quickly
arose.

"I fear this has been heavy work, Miss Wallen," he said, regretfully.
"You must make allowance for my inexperience. I have to leave town
to-morrow, and needed this before going. Mr. Langston--an old
friend--brought me in to you. I--I hope you will let me pay you--all I
think it worth."

"I could have got along faster if the manuscript had been a little
clearer," said the girl, smiling slightly. "Some of it was hard to
decipher, and the technical terms were new to me. If you will look it
over and let me know how nearly correct it is, I will then make out my
bill accordingly."

"There won't be any time for that," said he, "and Mr. Langston says you
are never inaccurate. He tells me, furthermore, that you brought my
scrawl to him three times to-day for words he himself could hardly make
out. It is over eighteen thousand words, according to my count. I know
what such work is worth in New York,"--and now he held forth three crisp
ten-dollar bills,--"but this had to be done so rapidly. Will thirty
dollars be--anywhere near right?" he asked.

Miss Wallen consulted a memorandum on her desk, gravely searched through
her portemonnaie, found some small coin and a two-dollar bill, then as
gravely took two of the bills and handed him the ten, the two, and the
small change. "More than sufficient by just twelve dollars and fifteen
cents," she quietly said, "provided it be understood that you are to
send me a memorandum of any and all errors detected, and I shall be here
early to-morrow morning and will be glad to rewrite the pages in which
they occur."

But Forrest protested. "I gave twenty-five dollars in New York for work
much shorter and done leisurely," said he, "and you have worked long
hours. I feel under very great obligation."

"You needn't," said she. "I have made more in the last twenty-four hours
than in the previous week. I was only too glad to get the work."

Down the iron stairs clerks and office-boys were clattering. From the
crowded pavement a hundred feet below, the thunder of hoofs and wheels
and thronging traffic rose on the frosty air. Over the roofs,
wind-driven, came the screech of a hundred whist