Lois was a little above medium height, and by reason of her slimness seemed taller than she was. She was dressed in the severe black which the firm of Shaddles & Soan imposed upon all their feminine employees. Mr. Shaddles had reached the age, if he had ever been at any other, when beauty had no significance. That Lois Reddle had a certain ethereal loveliness which was all her own might be true, but to the lawyer she was a girl clerk who received thirty-five well-grudged shillings every week of her life, minus the cost of her insurance. “You go down to Telsbury.” He had a minatory manner, and invariably prefaced his remarks with the accusative pronoun. “You’ll get there in an hour and a half. Take those two affidavits to the woman Desmond, and get her to sign the transfer form. The car’s there----” “I think Mr. Dorling had it----” she began. “The car’s there,” he said obstinately. “You’ll have a dry trip, and you ought to be thankful for the opportunity of a breath of fresh air. Here, take this,” as she was going out with the foolscap. It was a little slip of paper. “It is the Home Office order--use your senses, girl! How do you think you’ll get into the gaol without that? And tell that woman Desmond---- Anyway, off you go.” Lois went out and closed the door behind her. The four faded, middle-aged clerks, sitting at their high desks, did not so much as look up, but the snub-nosed girl with the oily face, who had been pounding a typewriter, perked her head round. “You’re going to Telsbury, by the so-called car?” she asked. “I thought he’d send you. That old devil’s so mean that he wouldn’t pay his fare to heaven! The juggernaut will kill somebody one of these days,” she added darkly, “you mark my words!” Attached to the firm of Shaddles & Soan was a dilapidated motor-car that had seen its best time in pre-war days. It was housed in a near-by garage which, being a property under Mr. Shaddles’ direction as trustee, exacted no rent for the care of the machine, which he had bought for a negligible sum at the sale of a bankrupt’s effects. It was a Ford, and every member of the staff was supposed to be able to drive it. It carried Mr. Shaddles to the Courts of Justice, it took his clerks on errands, and it figured prominently in all bills of cost. It was, in many ways, a very paying scheme. “Ain’t you glad you’re going?” asked Lizzy enviously. “Lord! If I could get out of this dusty hole! Maybe you’ll meet your fate?” Lois frowned. “My what?” “Your fate,” said Elizabetta, unabashed. “I spotted him out of the window this morning--that fellow is certainly potty about you!” A cold light of disfavour was in the eyes of Lois, but Lizzy was not easily squashed. “There’s nothing in that,” she said. “Why, there used to be a young man who waited for me for hours--in the rain too. It turned out that he wasn’t right in his head, either.”