shoes were heavier than usual. She caught a whiff of some delicate scent, as if his clothes were kept with it.
He perched up on the high stool and looked down on her.
“May I smoke?”
“Of course.” Then for the first time since he had come in she thought of Bob. “Have you heard about Mr. Lorrimer?” Her voice and mood changed as she asked it.
“Yes. How is he to-day?” His face sobered too.
“Oh, very ill, I’m afraid. Heavens! I was forgetting all about him. Doc Steele is there with him now. He may not live through the night.” She was ashamed to think how completely she had forgotten her old friend Bob in the last half hour, and determined now to be more loyal in her mind.
Dane felt the change in her at once and divined the reason for it, and he told himself this was no time to put any emotional pressure upon her, and that he must discipline himself till this tension was over.
“I did not realize he was as ill as that, Miss Carr. I’m very sorry. Benton dropped in and told me on his way home that he had been taken to the hospital.”
“Oh, did he?” And the possibility dawned on her mind.
“Yes,” he went on, without looking at her. “He asked me if I would do the leaders and political stuff for the News till Lorrimer was better.”
She said nothing for a minute, but he felt her sudden quickening to life. “What did you say?”
“I said I would.” Again he did not look at her. He did not need to.
“You did! You would work for this little paper?”
“Why not? It has just as much power as any other paper for getting a man in.”
