"Good-morning, Miss Williams," he said. "Has it been a long night?"
"Pretty long, Mr. Harleston," the girl answered. "There hasn't been a
thing doing for two hours."
"Haven't three gentlemen just left the building?"
"No one has passed in or out since you came in, Mr. Harleston."
"Then I must be mistaken."
"You certainly are. It's so lonely down here, Mr. Harleston, you can
pick up chunks of it and carry off."
"Been asleep?"
"I don't think!" she laughed. "I'm not minded to lose my job. Suppose
some peevish woman wanted a doctor and she couldn't raise me; do you
think I'd last longer than the morning and the manager's arrival? Nay!
Nay!"
"It's an unsympathetic world, isn't it, Miss Williams?"
"Only when you're down--otherwise it's not half bad. Say, maybe here's
one of your men now; he's walking down. Shall I stop him?"
"No, no, let him go. When he's gone, tell me if he's slender, or stout,
or has a moustache and imperial."
"Sure, I will."
Through the telephone Harleston could hear someone descend the stairs,
cross the lobby, and the revolving doors swing around.
The next moment, the operator's voice came with a bit of laugh.
"Are you there, Mr. Harleston?"
"I'm here."
"Well, your man was a woman--and she was accidentally deliberately
careful that I shouldn't see her face.
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