For Ethel Clayton the days that immediately followed the departure of the manager of the Hapwood-Diller Company were merely busy days. Positively nothing happened. The particular work that came to her was not different from that which had been her portion for some months; only in her oversight of things in general (and that oversight secretive) was she differently engaged. She took her book and pencil into the private office each morning at the usual hour and took dictation from Jim Mayberry. Mayberry was not the clear-headed, forceful thinker that Barton was. But his letters were brief and to the point nevertheless; he was not a numbskull. Nor did he lack a grasp of business details quite necessary to the carrying on of the affairs of the big concern. He worked faithfully, seemed to neglect nothing; and though he did not admit it, Ethel felt sure he was thankful to her when she smoothed the crudeness of his English, or brought out more clearly the points he desired to make in his correspondence. To her satisfaction he did not at first show those amorous proclivities which had so annoyed her in the past. His thoughts seemed to be centered on the business of trying to fill both Barton’s and his own jobs. Or was it that Jim Mayberry had something on his mind other than the business affairs of the Hapwood-Diller Company to trouble him? The office force, of course, buzzed at first because of the departure of Mr. Barton. But every individual was on his best behavior. They had all liked the general manager; and, perhaps, they had visions of his returning suddenly and taking them to task for sins of both omission and commission. Mayberry left the people in the outer office strictly and entirely alone; even Sydney came to Ethel at times for advice, or to report some slight matter which needed to be “put up to the boss.” It had been so before Barton went away, although the girl had not then remarked it. She was still “the buffer” between the small annoyances of the office and the man at the head of affairs. Grandon Fuller came in one day and had a somewhat extended conference with the manager _pro tem_. Ethel noted that the holder of so large a block of the company’s stock seemed to be very friendly with Mayberry, whereas when Mr. Macon Hammerly came in, as was his wont, he always timed his calls so as to miss Mayberry. The shrewd old grain dealer was frank to say that he did not like the present head of the Hapwood-Diller Company. “Jim always looked to me like a well-fed fox,” grumbled Hammerly to Ethel. “I always wonder who’s pullet he’s just swallowed.” Although Mayberry did not greatly disturb Ethel’s quiet pool of existence, Benway Chase seemed to have been an agitating pebble flung into it. Her old friend took hold of his duties with all the energy and keenness of perception that she knew he would display, once he was given a chance. Sydney and the rest of the office force liked him immensely.