She's in my department--sort of a bookkeeper." Noticing Helen's silence he added more carelessly than before, "You know how some girls act if you are any way pleasant to them." It was one of those trifling incidents which occasionally seem to have the deepest effect upon life.

That very afternoon, when Mary had tried to warn her cousin, Helen had gone to the factory apparently to bring Mary home, but in reality to see Burdon.

She had been in his private office, perched on the edge of his desk and swinging her foot, when the same girl came in--the girl who had smiled and stared near the station.
"All right, Fanny," said Burdon without looking around.

"Leave the checks.

I'll attend to them." It seemed to Helen that the girl went out slowly, a sudden spot of colour on each of her cheeks.
"You call her Fanny!" Helen asked, when, the door shut again.
"Yes," he said, busy with the checks.