asked, blustering, his face now very red. He
kept his seat and looked up at her with a bullish stare.

"Nothing is the matter, Mr. Meggison," she said. "Only I think I've
troubled you long enough. You--will be wanting me to go."

As she spoke she gazed straight and steadily down into his eyes, as if
he were an animal that could be mastered if your look never let his
go. She remembered how Sadie had said that Meggison wanted to be a
"dog," but his bark might be stopped if you showed him in time that
you were not afraid. Winifred _was_ afraid, but she acted as if she
were not, which was the great thing. And the "stunt," as Sadie would
have called it, seemed to work--if only for the moment.

When his face had cooled, he said: "Yes, you can go, Miss Child. I've
nothing more to say to you--at present. Except this: it won't be the
Gloves."

* * * * *

Tingling, burning, whirling with the excitement of her
interview--fully felt only after it was over--Win started to hurry
back to work. It was not a crowded time of the day in the shopping
world. Many ladies were lunching not buying, and employees, if on
business, were permitted to use the elevators, white light going up,
red light down. Only the boy in smart shop livery, who rushed the lift
from roof to basement, was in the mirrored vehicle when Win got in at
the superintendent's floor.

"Hats, Children's Wardrobes, Games, Toys, Books, Stationery!" shouted
the strident young voice mechanically as the doors whizzed back in
their groove at the story below.

In streamed some jaded mothers and children, for whom Win backed
humbly into a corner, and then, just as the doors were about to snap
shut once more for a downward plunge, a young man and woman hurried
laughing in. Winifred Child shrank farther into her corner, plastering
herself against the wall of the elevator, and turning her face away,
for the newcomers were Lord Raygan and Ena Rolls.

As the wall consisted entirely of mirrors, however, turning away gave
little protection. The mothers, refusing to retire with their young
before the latest arrivals, "swell" though they might be, Miss Rolls
and her companion were forced to push past the forms which kept the
door, and by the time the elevator had shot down a story or two
farther the pair were close to Win. Still she kept her face twisted as
far over her shoulder as it would go, at risk of getting a cramp in
the neck, and her heart was