r midst?

In his office Herrick and Miss Davis were waiting. Work had been
pretty well cleared up, and there was little to be done, and as Van
Landing saw them the memory of his half-waking, half-dreaming thought
concerning them came to him, and furtively he looked from one to the
other.

In a chair near the window, hands in her lap and feet on the rounds,
Carmencita waited, her eyes missing no detail of the scene about her,
and at Miss Davis, who came over to talk to her, she looked with
frank admiration. For a moment there was hesitating uncertainty in Van
Landing's face; then he turned to Herrick.

"Come into the next room, will you, Herrick? I want to speak to you a
minute."

What he was going to say he did not know. Herrick was such a steady
old chap, from him radiated such uncomplaining patience, about him was
such aloofness concerning his private affairs, that to speak to him on
personal matters was difficult. He handed him cigars and lighted one
himself.

"I'm going to close the office, Herrick, until after New-Year," he
began. "I thought perhaps you might like to go away."

"I would." Herrick, whose cigar was unlighted, smiled slightly. "But I
don't think I'll go."

"Why not?"

Herrick hesitated, and his face flushed. He was nearing forty, and his
hair was already slightly gray. "There are several reasons," he said,
quietly. "Until I am able to be married I do not care to go away. She
would be alone, and Christmas alone--"

"Is--is it Miss Davis, Herrick?" Van Landing's voice was strangely
shy; then he held out his hand. "You're a lucky man, Herrick. I
congratulate you. Why didn't you tell me before; and if you want to
get married, why not? What's the use of waiting? The trip's on me.
Christmas alone--I forgot to say I've intended for some time to raise
your salary. You deserve it, and it was thoughtlessness that made me
put it off." He sat down at his desk and took his check-book out of a
spring-locked drawer and wrote hastily upon it. "That may help to
start things, Herrick, and if there's any other way--"

In Herrick's astonished face the blood pumped deep and red, and as he
took the check Van Landing put in his hands his fingers twitched
nervously. It was beyond belief that Van Landing should have
guessed--and the check! It would mean the furnishing of the little
flat they had looked at yesterday and hoped would stay unrented for a
few months longer; meant a trip, and a little put aside to add