"Why, Miss Klein!" he said. "What's the matter?"
She was rather a pretty girl, even now. She stood up at his voice and
made an effort to straighten her hat.
"Haven't you heard?" she asked.
"I haven't heard anything that ought to make Miss Anna Klein weep of a
nice, frosty morning in October. Unless--" he sobered, for her grief was
evident. "Tell me about it."
"Father has given up his job."
"No!"!
"I'm telling you, Mr. Spencer. He won't help to make those shells. He's
been acting queer for three or four days and this morning he told your
father."
Graham whistled.
"As if it made any difference," she went on irritably. "Some one else
will get his job. That's all. What does he care about the Germans? He
left them and came to America as soon as he could walk."
Graham sat down.
"Now let's get this," he said. "He won't make shells for the Allies and
so he's given up his position. All right. That's bad, but he's a good
workman. He'll not have any trouble getting another job. Now, why are
you crying?"
"I didn't think you'd want me to stay on."
Putting her fear into words brought back her long hours of terror. She
collapsed into the chair again and fell to unquiet sobbing. Graham was
disturbed.
"You're a queer girl," he said. "Why should that lose me my most valued
assistant?"
When she made no reply he got up and going over to her put a hand on her
shoulder. "Tell me that," he said.
He looked down at her. The hair grew very soft and blonde at the nape of
her neck, and he ran a finger lightly across it. "Tell me that."
"I was afraid it would."
"And, even if it had, which you are a goose for thinking, you're just as
good in your line as your father is in his. I've been expecting any time
to hear of your leaving me for a handsomer man!"
He had been what he would have termed jollying her back to normality
again. But to his intense surprise she suddenly leaned back and looked
up into his face. There was no doubting what he saw there. Just for a
moment the situation threatened to get out of hand. Then he patted her
shoulders and put the safety of his desk between them.
"Run away and bathe your eyes," he said, "and then come back here
looking like the best secretary in the state, and not like a winter
thaw. We have the deuce of a lot of work to do."