"Well, I'm glad you told me that. I do not want a girl whose reputation is bad or who is conducting herself in a way that it is likely to become bad." The following morning when Ruth received the mail her eye at once caught the R.G. Wing Mortgage Company in the upper left hand corner of one of the letters. Eagerly she tore it open. Disappointment, black and hideous, rose from the ruins of a shattered hope and obscured the sunlight with a cloud of despair. How could she ever stand so much ill fortune! She was almost driven to desperation. The note read: "Dear Miss Babcock: "I regret to inform you that I cannot use you as stenographer. "Yours truly, "R.G. Wing." Ruth rushed to her room and her tense and overwrought nervous system found relief in tears--nature's safety valve. * * * * * Charles Wilson went to the office of R.G. Wing Mortgage Company for the purpose of securing a mortgage for one of his clients. "How are you, Mr. Wing. How is business?" "I am very well, Mr. Wilson, but I am away behind with my work. My stenographer quit a week ago and the work has been piling up ever since, waiting for her successor, whom I have not yet been able to find. I thought the other day that I had found a peach of a stenographer, but later I learned that she isn't just what she should be." "Character bad?" queried Wilson. "If it isn't bad she seems to be doing all she can to make it bad. I understand that she keeps bad company." "Who is the girl?" "Her name is Babcock. She used to be the stenographer at the Wilford Springs Central State Bank." "I had her do some work for me once when my stenographer was gone and she did good work." "I'm satisfied that she can do the work all right, but you see I can't afford to have a girl in my office whose reputation is bad or whose associations are questionable." "I hadn't heard anything wrong about the girl. Are you sure that there isn't some mistake about this?" "I got it straight. Stover told me himself." "Did he tell you who her evil associates are?" "No. I didn't ask him. He said a disreputable fellow." When Wilson returned to his own office he rang Central. "684," he called. "Hello, is this Harold? "Can you come over to my office for a few minutes? "Yes. It's important." In a few minutes Harold King arrived. "Haven't got a thousand dollar check for me?" he asked as he came in. "I am sorry to say I haven't, but I heard something a little while ago that I thought you should know. I was over at the office of the Wing Mortgage Company and Wing told me that his stenographer has left him and he is having trouble finding another." "I'll tell Miss Babcock." "She has already applied, but someone has been doing some knocking." "If anybody has been knocking on Ruth it is that whelp of a Stover." "Evidently you are not in love with Stover," Wilson commented. "Could you love a rattle snake?" Harold asked.