"Very good, Miss. Anything else?" She pondered. "Yes, Stokes. Ask him to hold the wire." "Hold the wire, Miss?" "Yes, while you run to the door to call me back." A moment later she was in the telephone room, quite out of breath. "Who is it?" she called. She compelled him to repeat the name four times. Eventually he got her serious attention. "No trains until this afternoon?" she cried despairingly. "Why, the children will be at the station to meet me." "Trains all snowbound," he announced quite cheerfully. "I've been telephoning." "It's awfully good of you. I'll call up the Pennsylvania--" "Don't bother," he called. "I've seen to all that. There's only one thing to do. Go to the ferry at one o'clock and wait. They'll get a train out as soon as possible. I'm glad it's to be no earlier than one. This is my busy day, you see." "What has that to do with it?" "I think I can be at liberty at one o'clock, that's all. I'm at my rooms now, writing letters of resignation to eleven clubs and declining invitations to four Christmas house parties on Long Island. I'm going down to see Thrush and Wrenn, the publishers, at eleven." "Indeed?" "Yes. I'm thinking of writing a book exposing New York society. They're all the rage now. This will be the literary remains of a fizzle." "Are you jesting?" "It depends," he said. "At ten I am to see George P. Krosson, the capital king. You see I _have_ been telephoning. I got him out of bed at seven-thirty. He says he didn't know I had it in me to be so energetic. He's an old friend, however, so it's all right. He--" "Please tell me what it's all about. I know who he is, so don't enlighten me. He once was an old friend of ours." "Well, he's always said he'd take me as a secretary, if I'd agree to buckle down to it. I'm going to try it on." "You--to be a secretary?" "Don't be so surprised, please! It's only a starter, you know. His last secretary owns a bank now, and the present one is going to Congress. But I'll tell you about it--at the ferry." She tried not to appear to be looking for him when her fretting taxicab finally struggled up to the ferry building at Twenty-third Street, just before one o'clock. Nearly an hour had been spent in the trip from the Scoville home to the ferry. There were times when she thought the effort would have to be abandoned. He was there. In fact he opened the door and assisted her to alight from the vehicle. There was a brief discussion with the driver over the register's showing. Then they hurried into the ferry building, pursued by three bags and a "Much obliged, Miss," from the surprised chauffeur. [Illustration: "He was there. In fact he opened the door and assisted her to alight."] "You were very reckless, giving him a dollar," he criticised severely, but not forgetting that he had given five the night before. He had been wondering all the morning if _she_ had noticed the cocktails.