Peggy’s uncle, Mr. John Mannering, was a big grey-haired man, with eyes that twinkled boyishly, and a voice that could be kind or commanding or both in one, on occasion. He asked Elaine a few questions which had the result of making her feel hopelessly ignorant and incompetent, and then sat considering her with a closeness of attention whose curious impersonality resulted in relieving Elaine from all feeling of embarrassment. "He’s sizing me up," she thought, and sat waiting without much hope of a favorable verdict. The atmosphere of the real estate office was like a different world from any to which Elaine had been accustomed. The maps upon the wall, the business-like click of the typewriter, the phrases which she caught as people came and went, all were calculated to make her feel how little her life had prepared her for fitting into so methodical a system of activity. Mr. Mannering turned abruptly to his niece. "Well, Peggy," he exclaimed, with the smile which was conclusive proof that, as Peggy put it, he was not "petrified." "Do I understand that you stand sponsor for this young woman?" "Yes, sir," returned Peggy, without troubling herself to inquire into his exact meaning. "You’ll vouch for her being efficient, courteous, obliging, industrious, quick to learn, slow to forget, and above all a sticker." "Yes, sir," said Peggy without blinking. It was Elaine who uttered a little protesting gasp, and looked frightened. "Well, I’ll take your word for her. You can be on hand in the morning, I suppose," he added, looking at Elaine. Like one in a dream Elaine heard herself concluding the arrangements for her plunge. She listened to the outlining of her duties, without any clear idea of what was said, agreed to the amount of her salary, without knowing whether it was more or less than she had hoped, and finally found herself outside with Peggy, in the dazed, uncertain mood of one who is not quite sure whether she has been dreaming or not. "Isn’t it glorious?" Peggy’s enthusiastic comment sounded wide-awake enough, at all events. "You’re a wage-earner, Elaine. Doesn’t that sound imposing? Don’t you think Uncle John’s a dear? I’m coming down some afternoon when I haven’t anything to do, and look at all those blue-prints. There’s something awfully fascinating in the things you don’t know anything about." Elaine reflected that in this case she was likely to find untold fascination in her new occupation. Her answers to Peggy’s cheerful chatter were rather vague. Now that she had taken the final step her courage was ebbing. Her mother’s warnings, which she had brushed aside with a sense of irritation when they were spoken, sounded in her ears with monotonous insistence. After her reckless mood of the afternoon had come the inevitable reaction of tremulous cowardice. Why had she ever done it? What had made her suppose herself qualified for such a position? How was she ever going to bear it?