manuscripts long
after O'Mally had declared that he would never read another line
they wrote. She let them outline their plans for stories and
articles to her, promising to bring these suggestions to the
editor's attention. She denied herself to nobody, was gracious even
to the Shakspere-Bacon man, the perpetual-motion man, the
travel-article man, the ghosts which haunt every magazine office.
The writers who had had their happy hour of O'Mally's favor kept
feeling that Ardessa might reinstate them. She answered their
letters of inquiry in her most polished and elegant style, and even
gave them hints as to the subjects in which the restless editor was
or was not interested at the moment: she feared it would be useless
to send him an article on "How to Trap Lions," because he had just
bought an article on "Elephant-Shooting in Majuba Land," etc.

So when O'Mally plunged into his office at 11:30 on this, the fourth
day of May, having just got back from three-days' fishing, he found
Ardessa in the reception-room, surrounded by a little court of
discards. This was annoying, for he always wanted his stenographer
at once. Telling the office boy to give her a hint that she was
needed, he threw off his hat and topcoat and began to race through
the pile of letters Ardessa had put on his desk. When she entered,
he did not wait for her polite inquiries about his trip, but broke
in at once.

"What is that fellow who writes about phossy jaw still hanging round
here for? I don't want any articles on phossy jaw, and if I did, I
wouldn't want his."

"He has just sold an article on the match industry to 'The New Age,'
Mr. O'Mally," Ardessa replied as she took her seat at the editor's
right.

"Why does he have to come and tell us about it? We've nothing to do
with 'The New Age.' And that prison-reform guy, what's he loafing
about for?"

Ardessa bridled.

"You remember, Mr. O'Mally, he brought letters of introduction from
Governor Harper, the reform Governor of Mississippi."

O'Mally jumped up, kicking over his waste-basket in his impatience.

"That was months ago. I went through his letters and went through him,
too. He hasn't got anything we want. I've been through with Governor
Harper a long while. We're asleep at the switch in here. And let me
tell you, if I catch sight of that causes-of-blindness-in-babies
woman around here again, I'll do something violent. Clear them out,
Miss Devine! Clear them out! We need a traffic pol