For a moment West looked confused. Then he recovered himself. “I certainly do admire Mrs. Briggs, but that doesn’t keep me--” he assumed his most intense look--“from admiring others.” Miss Wing threw back her fine shoulders. “Oh, if you’re going to pay _compliments_, we’ll certainly keep you. Come along, dear.” III The departure of the two women with West gave Mrs. McShane and Farley a chance to work rapidly for several moments. Mrs. McShane, whose years of experience had not developed speed in writing, kept glancing every now and then at Farley in admiration of his skill. He was evidently preparing a general description of the evening, which promised to be remembered, according to Mrs. McShane’s report, “as one of the most brilliant events in a Washington Winter remarkable for the brilliancy of its entertainments.” The old woman had read that phrase somewhere, and she had already used it several times, each time with a growing fear of detection by her editors. But for such sonorous phrases she would have had some difficulty in continuing her newspaper work. During one of her pauses Farley remarked, pleasantly: “Inspiration given out, Mrs. McShane?” “Oh, if I could only compose like you, Mr. Farley!” she replied, enviously. Farley laughed. “I guess you’ll be all right,” he said. “Sometimes I think I oughtn’t ever to have gone into newspaper work,” the old woman went on, pathetically. “I don’t know enough.” “Oh, you don’t have to know anything to do this kind of work,” said Farley. Then he felt sorry. He looked up quickly, but Mrs. McShane had apparently noticed nothing in the remark to wound her feelings. “Perhaps I can help you,” Farley went on, in a kindly tone. “I’ve been trying to do my article in a different way from the usual society article. I should think people would get sick of reading the same old things about the entertainments here. Besides, this party is given more to show off Briggs’s house than anything else; so I’ve been giving up a lot of space to a description of the place itself. It’s one of Hanscomb’s houses, you know--that big Boston architect, who’s been getting such a lot of advertising lately. He’s one of the best men in his line we’ve ever had. He’s modeled it on the Colonial style, which is fashionable again. I know a little something about architecture. I studied it once for six months in New York, before I began newspaper work. So I’m sort of spreading myself. Now, you might do something like that.” “But that wouldn’t be fair to you, Mr. Farley,” said the old woman. “No, I don’t mean that,” Farley went on. “You might make a lot out of the floral decorations and the color scheme in the rooms. People like to hear about those things. Didn’t you notice how the library was in Empire----?” The old woman shook her head. “Oh, I don’t understand about these things,” she interrupted. “I don’t know enough.”