"Possibly, after you have wheedled him and hung round his neck. Well, do you feel you have a right to disappoint mother and Olive, as you will do, if you so much as begin on this course, to say nothing of sticking to it?" Shirley was silent for a moment. Then she answered, very gently, "I should be sorry for that, of course, but I think I have the right. Devoting one’s self to society can’t be a duty one owes to one’s family, if one does n’t feel satisfied with that life. And my learning to earn my own living won’t disgrace my family--not in these days of millionaire milliners and violet raisers." "No, it won’t disgrace your family. Instead, it makes one member of it sit up and look at his small sister with a good deal of respect. If you take hold of the thing, you ’ll go through with it. I ’ve not the least doubt of that, for you ’re no quitter." "Thank you. Then will you go with me to talk with father about it?" "When?" "Now. He ’s in the library." Murray got up. "You are in earnest," he remarked. "Yes, I ’ll go with you. But you ’ll find the question will have to be pretty thoroughly threshed out with him before he agrees. He employs none but experts; you ’ll have to win your spurs before you can wear them. And good stenographers are born, not made. If you ’ve got it in you, you ’ll succeed; if you have n’t, you won’t, no matter how hard you try." He could not see his sister’s eyes, but he could read the determination in her voice as she answered that it was the expectation of winning those spurs that made her heart jump just to think about it. It was a fortnight after this talk, and the longer and more earnest one which succeeded it, that, coming away from the factory one warm July afternoon at an earlier hour than usual, Peter Bell happened upon his young neighbour in a most unexpected place. Far downtown, blocks below the usual shopping district, he saw Shirley Townsend come out of a doorway and start rapidly up the street. She had not seen him, and he was too far away to call to her, so he was forced to quicken his pace almost to a run to overtake her at the next corner before she signalled her car. She had walked so fast that the best he could do was to run and swing himself aboard the same car just as it got under way. The car was full, and Shirley herself was obliged to stand, clinging to a strap. Peter secured a strap beside her. There was little chance for conversation during the long ride uptown, but Peter’s eyes were observant, and he noticed a peculiarity in Shirley’s attire.