It needed no genius to
infer that these garnitures had not embellished the editorial chamber
during Mr. Harkless's activity, but, on the contrary, had been put in
place that very morning. Mr. Fisbee had not known of the decorations, and,
as his glance fell upon them, a faint look of pain passed over his brow;
but the girl examined the room with a dancing eye, and there were both
tears and laughter in her heart.
"How beautiful!" she cried. "How beautiful!" She crossed the room and gave
her hand to Ross. "It is Mr. Schofield, isn't it? The ribbons are
delightful. I didn't know Mr. Harkless's room was so pretty."
Ross looked out of the window and laughed as he took her hand (which he
shook with a long up and down motion), but he was set at better ease by
her apparent unrecognition of the fact that the decorations were for her.
"Oh, it ain't much, I reckon," he replied, and continued to look out of
the window and laugh.
She went to the desk and removed her gloves and laid her rain-coat over a
chair near by. "Is this Mr. Harkless's chair?" she asked, and, Fisbee
answering that it was, she looked gravely at it for a moment, passed her
hand gently over the back of it, and then, throwing the rain-cloak over
another chair, said cheerily:
"Do you know, I think the first thing for us to do will be to dust
everything very carefully.
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