"I suppose you would want me to begin with Mr. Early," said Lena, hardly
knowing what reply to make.
"Never mind Mr. Early. Everybody knows just what he's got and how his
place looks. You might include him later, but I should start with people
who are more exclusive and yet whose names everybody knows. Now there's
Mr. Windsor and Mrs. Percival. By the way, Mr. Norris is awfully
intimate at the Percivals'. Perhaps he'd help you to an introduction. If
Mrs. Percival would let you write up her library, you may be sure
there'd be a lot of others who would follow her example. You might try
it, anyway. Go and see her. Tell her what a hard time you are having to
earn your own living. Your looks will carry you a long way."
"I think young Mr. Percival is in Mr. Norris' office now. Some one came
in while I was there and I think he called him Percival," said Lena
faintly.
"Say! is that so?" exclaimed Miss Huntress. "Now's your chance! Go in
and ask while he's there. He'll find it hard to refuse to your face."
"You go," interposed Lena. "If I go, it will look as though I knew. But
you can walk in all innocent."
Therefore the conversation on matters which were to change the destiny
of a city was interrupted by a smart knock on the assistant editor's
door, and Miss Huntress, eminently self-possessed, walked in on the two
young men.
"Beg pardon, Mr. Norris, I didn't know you had any one here," she began.
"But I won't keep you a moment. The truth is, I want a series of
articles on the private libraries of the city, and, knowing that you are
acquainted with Mrs. Percival, I thought you'd help the paper to an
opening there."
"Let me introduce Mr. Percival," said Norris. "He can give you more
information than I can."
"Well, this is lucky!" ejaculated Miss Huntress.
"Our library isn't a show affair," Dick said stiffly. "My mother, I am
sure, would be very unwilling to submit to that kind of a write-up. My
father was a book-lover, not a book-fancier. It's essentially a private
collection."
"I'm sorry you feel that way about it," Miss Huntress rejoined equably.
"Of course, nowadays, I can't admit that there's any such thing as
privacy. And it isn't only that I want the articles, Mr. Percival. I
want to help along a girl that needs the work, and an awfully nice girl
she is. We haven't any regular job for her, and all I can do is to throw
odd bits of work in her way. She has an old mother to support, and it
would be a real charity to her if you'd look at it in that light. Miss
Quincy is a perfect lady, and you may be sure she'd take no advantage of
you to write up anything sensational or impertinent."