"No, no! Let them be the reddest you
can find."
"Next, as to the cost of red roses."
"Oh, there'll be no trouble about _that_. Simply tell the florist that
you want seventy-five cents' worth, and he will give you a fine bunch of
them. By the way, I'd better put his name and address down on a piece of
paper for you. Be sure to go to this one because I know him, and he's
extremely reliable."
He took the slip from her, thanked her, bowed gravely, and turned to go.
A question had risen involuntarily to the tip of her tongue; it hung
there for a breath, its fate in the balance; and then she released it,
casually, when another second would have been too late.
"How is your work on the _Post_ going?"
He wheeled as though she had struck him, and looked at her with a sudden
odd hardening of the lower part of his face.
"The _Post_ discharged me this morning."
"Oh--"
It was all that she could say, for she knew it very well. She had had it
from Colonel Cowles two days before it happened, which was three days
after the April meeting of the directors. Charles Gardiner West, who was
to have raised his voice in behalf of Mr.
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