ance. There was a bad accident up the line about which conflicting accounts were received every hour. The committee dropped in unexpectedly in the morning to be uselessly sympathetic about Bob, and she had to tell them as good-humourediy as she could that they had more time to think about him than she had. The printing press chose the occasion to break down in the middle of the afternoon just as the paper was going on, and Valerie had to leave the situation and run, when she heard the steamer whistle, to meet Mrs. Lorrimer, who had sent a telegram to say she was on the way. She had to forget the work while she tried to comfort Bob’s anxious mother. She had a buggy ready for her, and explained as kindly as she could why she could not possibly go on to the hospital with her, seeing perfectly well that Mrs. Lorrimer did not believe a word she said. Back to the office she went to meet an up-river man who wanted quotations on prices for a large job. He had been sent by Townshend. From half-past five to half-past six she read the benumbing pages of a spring show catalogue. She hurried home, took a hot bath, tried to make her mind a blank for a quarter of an hour, and went down to dinner feeling as if she had been through a war. Fortified by a bottle of wine from Mac, she ate a restrained meal and went back to the office to work till eleven.
The second day was an excellent likeness of the first, except that it was the jobbing machine that broke down instead of the printing press, and that, in addition, one of the girls was away ill. Again she ate her lunch in the office as she edited the cables. And the rushed day was coloured throughout by the news that Bob had a temperature of 104 and was at death’s door.
At six o’clock Valerie dropped back in her chair and went limp. The staff had gone and only Jimmy was to
