my best, I promise you."

"Vell," said Mr. Greesheimer, "you be here tomorrow at nine und ve'll
see." He sighed. "Ve'll see, my friend." He turned back to his desk
with an abrupt and businesslike little gesture of dismissal.

And this businesslike air he retained on the morrow. As he explained
her work to her, the tone of his voice was crisp and dry. Ladies'
cloaks were Greesheimer's "line," and though his business was still new
he was increasing it rapidly. He was eager, hungry, almost fierce in
the way he snapped off his letters at times; again he was a genial soul,
boasting to her of his success and giving forth shrewd homely proverbs
that he had learned long ago as a child in some Galician village. But
never in those weeks of work did she catch a suggestion of "freshness."
He was her boss, and at times her friend in a fatherly fashion--that was
all. She worked hard, overcame her awkwardness, was punctual, laboured
to please him. And he was not slow to praise.

"You're a smart young goil," he said more than once. "Keep on--it's
great--it suits me fine."

And despite the monotonous bleak detail of her life in that room, Ethel
grew steadily happier there. For she was gaining confidence fast, she
was living up to her ideals. Soon she would be ready to leave this
funny little man and get a place of a different kind--as secretary, for
instance, to some clever woman novelist or noted suffrage leader. She
had already put down her name at three employment bureaus, in each of
which the woman in charge seemed to look upon her with a favourable eye.

Too bad poor Joe disliked it so. When she informed him of what she had
done, he had appeared quite taken back.

"All right, Ethel, go ahead. I don't want to meddle," he had replied.
"Only--" he had scowled at her in an effort to smile--"I don't quite
see--well, go ahead."

Plainly it had been a surprise. It was so utterly different from what
Amy would have done. It had set him thinking, hurt him. "She wants to
get away," he had thought. Ethel had caught his feeling and had pitied
him for it. But mingled with this pity had been a vague resentment:

"The minute you show you've made up your mind to be a little
independent, they treat it like a slap in the face. All right, Mr.
Male Provider, your tender feelings will have to be hurt. There's
nothing the matter, I mean to stay here. I'll stick by you just as long
as you need me. Only, I propose to be free!"

Their relation