And then she dusted, with pursed lips that blamed the disgraceful and yet excusable untidiness of men, and then she examined, with despair and with pride, her dirty little hands, whose finger-tips all clustered together (they were now like the hands of a nice, careless schoolboy), and lightly dusted one against the other.

Then she found a galley-proof under the table.

It was a duplicate proof of _The Five Towns Chronicle's_ leading article, dictated to her by a prodigious Arthur Dayson, in Mr.Cannon's presence, on the previous day, and dealing faithfully with "The Calder Street Scandal" and with Mr.
Enville, a member of the Local Board--implicated in the said scandal.
The proof was useless now, for the leader-page was made up.
Nevertheless, Hilda carefully classified it "in case..." IV On a chair was _The Daily Telegraph_, which Dayson had evidently been reading, for it was blue pencilled.

Hilda too must read it; her duty was to read it: Dayson had told her that she ought never to neglect the chance of reading any newspaper whatever, and that a young woman in her responsible situation could not possibly know too much.

Which advice, though it came from a person ridiculous to her, seemed sound enough, and was in fact rather flattering.